Das Totenhemdchen (ENG: The Shroud or The Burial Shirt) is a German fairytale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in the first edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Grimm's Fairy Tales) in 1815. It contains elements of Aarne–Thompson type 769: The Death of a Child.
In a time of high mortality rates among children, through the story we are taught that just as the distraught mother learns to put her trust in God and control her grieving so too must we when we suffer a death otherwise the spirit of the departed cannot rest.
In this work Vergozisi driven by this short but touching fairytale calls attention to the feelings of loss and mourning. Remarkable is that the fairytale chooses the delicate relationship between a mother and her child and show us how the death of a child was experienced. In contrast to today; God, the supernatural, the afterlife, the connection between the world of the living and the dead where important elements in coping with death and the unknown.
Das Totenhemdchen | 2023 (self-made piece of clothing representing The Shroud)
