Britain’s tears for Queen Elizabeth: What is really going on here?

Professor Stephen Coleman examines the nation’s grief – and asks what do Britain’s tears for Queen Elizabeth mean?

Monday’s state funeral for Queen Elizabeth II saw mourners weeping in crowd-lined streets as the procession made its way through central London and then on to Windsor.  

As the nation comes to terms with the loss of the UK’s longest-reigning monarch in history, Professor Stephen Coleman considers what is causing the weeping and feelings of loss and sadness affecting so many, asking: ‘What is really going on here?’ 

In a piece for The Conversation, Professor Coleman, of the School of Media and Communication, examines the royal narrative, the public mood and what else could potentially cause the grieving witnessed as the late Queen lay in state, and on the day of the funeral.  

He writes:

Rather than thinking of the current display of public passions as “hysteria” or “contagion”, perhaps we should think of it as a moment in which people pose the crucial questions: “What opportunities are available to me for relating to this situation on my own terms? What might be involved in acting upon these feelings that I am barely registering at the moment?” 

Read the full article on The Conversation website. 

Picture free to use via Wikimedia Commons/Doyle of London