The Power of Death
Contemporary Reflections on Death in Western Society
1st Edition
Published on 1. October 2014
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-1-78238-433-5 (ISBN)
Description
The social and cultural changes of the last century have transformed death from an everyday fact to something hidden from view. Shifting between the practical and the theoretical, the professional and the intimate, the real and the fictitious, this collection of essays explores the continued power of death over our lives. It examines the idea and experience of death from an interdisciplinary perspective, including studies of changing burial customs throughout Europe; an account of a"dying party" in the Netherlands; examinations of the fascination with violent death in crime fiction and the phenomenon of serial killer art; analyses of death and bereavement in poetry, fiction, and autobiography; and a look at audience reactions to depictions of death on screen. By studying and considering how death is thought about in the contemporary era, we might restore the natural place it has in our lives.
Reviews / Votes
"As well as for thanatology and death studies specialists, the book will be of even keener interest to those in the various areas touched on in the essays, offering an eye-opening introduction to an interdisciplinary approach in this fascinating field." ? Social Anthropology"The extraordinary impact of loss is discussed in a number of contexts including war and the complexities of dealing with that experience in a socially and culturally dynamic contemporary society. Contributors are drawn from a range of disciplines and international academic contexts, which makes for rich empirical fare...as well as covering socially important topics." ? Avril Maddrell, University of the West of England
"The conceptual and methodological concerns contained within this collection are very wide ranging and... there is something for every reader who hails from an arts and humanities or social science background." ? Hannah Rumble, University of Bath
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Library binding
Illustrations
17 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
552 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78238-433-5 (9781782384335)
DOI
10.3167/9781782384335
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Maria-José Blanco | Ricarda Vidal
The Power of Death
Contemporary Reflections on Death in Western Society
E-Book
10/2014
1st Edition
Berghahn Books
€24.49
Available for download
Maria-Jose Blanco | Ricarda Vidal
The Power of Death
Contemporary Reflections on Death in Western Society
E-Book
10/2014
1st Edition
Berghahn Books
from
€139.19
Available for download
Persons
Maria-Jose Blanco is a Lecturer and Language teacher in the Department of Spanish Portuguese and Latin American Studies (SPLAS) at King's College London. She is the author of Life-writing in Carmen Martin Gaite's Cuadernos de todo and her Novels of the 1990s (2013), and the editor of a special issue of Journal of Romance Studies, "Airing the Private: Women's Diaries in the Luso-Hispanic World" (2009) and the forthcoming Feminine Singular: Growing up through life-writing in the Luso-Hispanic World (2014).
Content
List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Ricarda Vidal and Maria-Jose Blanco
PART I: DEATH IN SOCIETY
Chapter 1. Life Extension, Immortality and the Patient Voice
Catherine Jenkins
Chapter 2. Beyond 'Mourning and Melancholia'
Lynne M. Simpson
Chapter 3. War and Requiem Compositions in the Twentieth Century
Wolfgang Marx
PART II: DEATH IN LITERATURE
Chapter 4. Understanding Death/Writing Bereavement: The writer's experience
Maria-Jose Blanco Lopez de Lerma
Chapter 5. A Way of Sorrows for the Twentieth Century: Margherita Guidacci's LaVia Crucis dell'umanita
Eleanor David
Chapter 6. From Self-Erasure to Self-Affirmation: Communally Acknowledged 'Good Death' in Ernest Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying
Corina Crisu
Chapter 7. Habeas Corpse. The Dead Body of Evidence in John Grisham's The Client
Fiorenzo Iuliano
Chapter 8. The Fascination with Torture and Death in Twenty-first-Century Crime Fiction
Rebecca Shillabeer
PART III: DEATH IN VISUAL CULTURE
Chapter 9. The Power of Negative Creation - Why Art by Serial Killers Sells
Ricarda Vidal
Chapter 10. Screening the Dying Individual: Film, Mortality and the Ethics of Spectatorship
John Horne
Chapter 11. The Broken Body as Spectacle: Looking at Death and Injury in Sport
Julia Banwell
Chapter 12. Death on Display: The Ideological Function of the Mummies of the World Exhibit
Diana York Blaine
PART IV: CEMETERIES AND FUNERALS
Chapter 13. The Romanian Carnival of Death and the Merry Cemetery of Sapanta
Marina Cap Bun
Chapter 14. In the Dead of Night: a Nocturnal Exploration of Heterotopia in the Graveyard
Bel Deering
Chapter 15. Scenarios of Death in Contexts of Mobility: Guineans and Bangladeshis in Lisbon
Clara Saraiva and Jose Mapril
Chapter 16. Karaoke Death: Intertextuality in Active Euthanasia Practices
Natasha Lushetich
PART V: PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ON DEATH
Chapter 17. Death isn't what it used to be
Lala Isla
Chapter 18. The Dad Project
Briony Campbell
Index
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Ricarda Vidal and Maria-Jose Blanco
PART I: DEATH IN SOCIETY
Chapter 1. Life Extension, Immortality and the Patient Voice
Catherine Jenkins
Chapter 2. Beyond 'Mourning and Melancholia'
Lynne M. Simpson
Chapter 3. War and Requiem Compositions in the Twentieth Century
Wolfgang Marx
PART II: DEATH IN LITERATURE
Chapter 4. Understanding Death/Writing Bereavement: The writer's experience
Maria-Jose Blanco Lopez de Lerma
Chapter 5. A Way of Sorrows for the Twentieth Century: Margherita Guidacci's LaVia Crucis dell'umanita
Eleanor David
Chapter 6. From Self-Erasure to Self-Affirmation: Communally Acknowledged 'Good Death' in Ernest Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying
Corina Crisu
Chapter 7. Habeas Corpse. The Dead Body of Evidence in John Grisham's The Client
Fiorenzo Iuliano
Chapter 8. The Fascination with Torture and Death in Twenty-first-Century Crime Fiction
Rebecca Shillabeer
PART III: DEATH IN VISUAL CULTURE
Chapter 9. The Power of Negative Creation - Why Art by Serial Killers Sells
Ricarda Vidal
Chapter 10. Screening the Dying Individual: Film, Mortality and the Ethics of Spectatorship
John Horne
Chapter 11. The Broken Body as Spectacle: Looking at Death and Injury in Sport
Julia Banwell
Chapter 12. Death on Display: The Ideological Function of the Mummies of the World Exhibit
Diana York Blaine
PART IV: CEMETERIES AND FUNERALS
Chapter 13. The Romanian Carnival of Death and the Merry Cemetery of Sapanta
Marina Cap Bun
Chapter 14. In the Dead of Night: a Nocturnal Exploration of Heterotopia in the Graveyard
Bel Deering
Chapter 15. Scenarios of Death in Contexts of Mobility: Guineans and Bangladeshis in Lisbon
Clara Saraiva and Jose Mapril
Chapter 16. Karaoke Death: Intertextuality in Active Euthanasia Practices
Natasha Lushetich
PART V: PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ON DEATH
Chapter 17. Death isn't what it used to be
Lala Isla
Chapter 18. The Dad Project
Briony Campbell
Index