Description
Book SynopsisWritten by one of the world's leading paleographers, this book poses two fundamental questions: When did human beings beginand why have they continuedto decide that a certain number of their dead had a right to a written death? What differences have existed in the practice of writing death from age to age and culture to culture? Drawing principally on testimonials intended for public display, such as monuments, tombstones, and grave markings, as well as on scrolls, books, manuscripts, newspapers, and posters, the author reconstructs the ways Western cultures have used writing to commemorate the dead, from the tombs of ancient Egypt to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The author argues that the relation between funereal remains and inscription is a profoundly political one. The recurring questionWho merits a written death?demands a multifaceted reply, one that intersects such modes of human cultural history as the relation between the living and the dead, the control of
Table of Contents
1. The tomb and its signs 2. From the sign to the text 3. The order of the text 4. The order of memory 5. The names and the crosses 6. Writing the great 7. The books and the stones 8. Monument and document 9. The body, knowledge, and money 10. Florence and Rome 11. From the stone to the page 12. The theaters of pain 13. Anglo-Americana 14. Ordering the corpses, ordering the writing 15. The middle class and its writing Notes Index of names.
