Description
Book Synopsis Looking at the cultural responses to death and dying, this collection explores the emotional aspects that death provokes in humans, whether it is disgust, fear, awe, sadness, anger, or even joy. Whereas most studies of death and dying treat the subject from an objective viewpoint, the scholars in this collection recognize their inherent connection with death which allows for a new and more personal form of study. More broadly, this collection suggests a new paradigm in the study of death and dying.
Trade Review “…a wonderful edited collection I encourage any death scholar to read…I personally hope more volumes like this will emerge and that death scholars will continue to reflect about their subjective involvement in researching death as this makes for a richer field of study.” • Dead Good Reading
“The book takes a reflexive approach so that the authors contribute both scholarship and personal reflections… it works very well.” • Simon Shimshon Rubin, University of Haifa
“It’s good and interesting, with chapters that all have interesting things to say about matters of death and dying.” • Paul C. Rosenblatt, University of Minnesota
Table of Contents List of Figures
Introduction
Aubrey Thamann and Kalliopi M Christodoulaki
Part I: Delaying Death
Chapter 1. An Absent Presence: The Co-Constitution of Loss
Alison Witchard
Chapter 2. Immortality and Existential Terror: Learning the Language of Living Forever
Jeremy Cohen
Part II: Caregiving
Chapter 3. Living, Caring & Dying: Music and the House of Endless Losses
Carina Nandlal
Chapter 4. Death and Fulfillment: Mortuary Performance and the Impact on Self
Kalliopi M Christodoulaki
Part III: Confronting Death
Chapter 5. Crossroads: Life and Death in Indiana
Aubrey Thamann
Chapter 6. “What has the field done to you?” Researching Death, Dying, and Bereavement between Closeness and Distance
Ekkehard Coenen
Chapter 7. The Historical Study of Death & Dying: The Intersection of Familial Stories and Catholic Rituals
Sarah Nytroe
Part IV: Memorialization
Chapter 8. Touch ‘Em All: Memorializing Harmon Killebrew
Debbie Hanson
Chapter 9. After Life: Laying Flower Memes on My Mother’s Grave and the Recollective Realm of Life after Death
Olivia Guntarik and Claudia Bellote
Chapter 10. A Monumental Problem: Memorializing the Jonestown Dead
Rebecca Moore
Chapter 11. Long Live Chill #LLC: Exploring Grief, Memorial, & Ritual in African American R.I.P. T-shirt Culture
Kami Fletcher
Conclusion
Kalliopi M Christodoulaki and Aubrey Thamann
Index
