Alongside gratitude and anguish

In this piece, I respond to Sarah Cervenak and Molly Farneth’s generous readings of Hope Draped in Black. Regarding Cervenak’s moving piece, “High Under The Pew,” I focus on the apposition of apparent oppositions—such as elevation and being underneath, or social life and black death. I also draw attention to the relationship between style of writing and ethics that Cervenak enacts in her comments. I then engage Farneth’s reflections on the ritualization of melancholy. While melancholy is expressed and performed in aesthetic and political practices (song, dance, vigil), we must be alert to the ways that civic rituals convert loss and anguish into opportunities to affirm and bolster imperial projects.