Grieving Critically: Barack Obama and the Counter-Eulogy

• Date: 01 June 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/1065912921998458
• Author: Lucy Williams
• Published date: 01 June 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

2022, Vol. 75(2) 307 –320

Article

https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912921998458

Political Research Quarterly

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DOI: 10.1177/1065912921998458

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Public mourning—“the attempt to employ grief for politi-

cal ends”—presents unique opportunities for political

and social transformation (Stow 2017, 5). As Simon Stow

(2007, 206) has argued, grieving provides a “great

opportunity for critical analysis,” an occasion for com-

munities to reflect on their virtues and limitations. And

as Heather Pool (2012, 185, 189) has observed, it “can

help resolve political and social tensions” and may

“spark . . . conversation[s] about responsibility and

prompt calls for specific political and institutional

change.” According to Judith Butler (2008, 12; see also

Butler 2004, 19), grief reveals “something about who we

are” and “delineates the ties we have to others, . . .

show[ing] us that these ties constitute what we are.” Grief

is also inherently and necessarily transformative: as

Butler explains, loss “changes you possibly forever,” and

“mourning has to do with agreeing to undergo a transfor-

mation the full result of which you cannot know in

advance” (Butler 2004, 18; see also Butler 2008, 11).

In ancient Athens, political leaders responded to these

transformative, opportunity-laden moments using the

epitaphios logos or official funeral oration—a distinct

rhetorical form that praised the polity, celebrated the

fallen, and counseled survivors. Since then, official

funeral speeches have played an integral role in political

societies. From Pericles’ and Lysias’ epitaphioi logoi to

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, state funeral orations tend

to offer the comfort of sameness, reassuring listeners

through a set of familiar and expected tropes. They also

contribute to civic education and socialization by teach-

ing and reinforcing a community’s civic values (see

Loraux 1986, 144).

Although official funeral orations have become a

familiar ritual for grieving publics, and although they play

an important role in shaping a country’s values and offi-

cial history, there are some who believe official funeral

rhetoric is not healthy. Indeed, critics have long warned

that funeral speeches have harmful and pe rnicious

effects. In Plato’s Menexenus, for example, Socrates

laments that official funeral speeches “cast a spell over

[listeners’] souls,” stroke egos, and leave audiences feel-

ing “entranced” with “feelings of [their] own nobility”

(Plato 2010, 117–18). Contemporary scholars likewise cri-

tique the “simple comforts” of funeral oratory, arguing that

official funeral speeches undermine the public’s capacity

for self-critique and discipline listeners into comfortable,

complacent, and uncritical understandings of themselves

(see Jamieson 2013; Johnston 2015; Stow 2007).

Grieving democracies thus face a dilemma. Moments

of public mourning offer unique opportunities for self-

reflection, growth, and transformation. But to commem-

orate these moments, democratic communities have

998458PRQXXX10.1177/1065912921998458Political Research QuarterlyWilliams

research-article2021

1Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA

Corresponding Author:

Lucy Williams, Department of Political Science, Brigham Young

University, 774 Kimball Tower, Provo, UT 84602, USA.

Email: lucy_williams@byu.edu

Grieving Critically: Barack Obama

and the Counter-Eulogy

Lucy Williams1

Abstract

How can grieving communities respond to public loss while also seizing the reflective and transformative potential

inherent in moments of collective mourning? In this article, I explore this question by analyzing and critiquing fifty-

seven of the official funeral speeches Barack Obama delivered during his presidency. I compare Obama’s national

eulogies to two ancient mourning traditions: the Homeric mode and the Athenian mode. I further argue that, like

these ancient modes, Obama’s eulogies may suppress critical thought, perpetuate us/them thinking, and prioritize

individual interests above communal ties. I therefore propose and theorize the counter-eulogy, a thoughtful, critical,

and self-reflective mode of official funeral rhetoric inspired by the counter-monument artistic movement and other

alternative mourning practices. I analyze Obama’s eulogy for Reverend Clementa Pinckney as an example of a counter-

eulogy. In doing so, I illustrate how counter-eulogies preserve the ritual features of traditional national eulogies while

also capturing the democratic potentiality inherent in moments of public grief.

Keywords

mourning, public grief, funeral orations, epitaphios logos, Obama