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Life Writing and Death: Dialogues of the Dead

Authors :
Jane Wildgoose
Clare Brant
James Metcalf
Source :
European Journal of Life Writing, Vol 9, Pp LW&D1-LW&D18 (2020)
Publication Year :
2020
Publisher :
University of Groningen Press, 2020.

Abstract

One thing in life we can be certain of: death. But how we talk about death—its inevitability, its causes and its course, its effects, or its places—is susceptible to changing cultural conditions. Reviewing a history of death that begins in prehistory, the distinguished historian of death Thomas Laqueur doubts it is possible to comprehend (in both senses) the topic: ‘Our awareness of death and the dead stands at the edge of culture. As such they may not have a history in the usual sense but only more and more iterations, endless and infinitely varied, that we shape into n engagement with the past and the present’.

Details

Language :
English
Volume :
9
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
European Journal of Life Writing
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....2f7ecb646d6fbf9fea4ea2d6c8888808