An Analysis of Obituaries in Staff Magazines

In the literature extensive attention is given to the content, structure and style of obituaries in newspapers. Analyses of the demise of colleagues in internal business communications are however non-existent. This paper discusses a bottom-up analysis of 150 obituaries published in Flemish staff magazines--obituaries that mostly focus on the deceased’s career and professional qualities. Following analysis, the data were divided in obituaries that are continuous texts and obituaries with a letter format. The differences between the two types lie at different levels: format, content, structure and language use. Obituaries with a letter format are characterized and determined by three paradoxes: the sender-receiver paradox, life-death paradox and happiness-sadness paradox.status: publishe