Death and Dying, Mourning and Remembrance

A Feminist “Nutt” Point of View by Shannon Nutt

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on Feminism and Religion project

This is the first blog post I have written, so the concept of being a blogger is a little foreign to me.  But I... more This is the first blog post I have written, so the concept of being a blogger is a little foreign to me.  But I will just jump in!

I grew up in a religious house that became far more religious after my mother passed away from brain cancer when I was thirteen.  My single father became heavily involved in the Lutheran Church, thinking this was the best way to raise his two daughters.  I was happy to go to church and get the structure that the church provided.  I was also grateful that I went to a church that had a female pastor.  Lacking a mother, it was nice to have a strong female role model who was breaking into the “boys’ club” that was the church.  Having found a postitive, female role model, I was really upset when I heard very conservative members of other churches and my own family say that women have no business speaking or leading people in church.

The Politics of Pity: Domesticating Loss in a Russian Province

by Serguei Alex. Oushakine (Сергей Ушакин)

in American Anthropologist. Vol. 108, No. 2 (2006): 297-311.

La guerra non più nobile. Trasformazioni del lutto e destrutturazione del mito della bella morte nell’Italia postfascista, in L. Klinkhammer e O. Janz (a cura di), La morte per la patria. La celebrazione dei caduti dal Risorgimento alla Repubblica, Donzelli, Roma 2008, pp. 213-240.

by Guri Schwarz

When the Mourning Dawns

by Author Sam Oliver

Mourning

When darkness turns to day, the sun moves over the horizon and touches everything in sight. This movement across the... more When darkness turns to day, the sun moves over the horizon and touches everything in sight. This movement across the landscape brightens everything. Such an illumination awakens us all. We rise with energy moving in and through us allowing us to create a new day. A day unique from all the rest and creatively woven into our soul.

This is the landscape of our soul. As you can see, nature has a way of showing us just how powerful we are. The same power that created the moon and the stars and the movement of all space and time lies within the human heart. It is the heart of creation itself, and perhaps, the heart of our Creator.

Human beings are fortunate to be able to be aware of our awareness. This awareness gives us an opportunity to reflect on our soul and find blessing in being alive. Our consciousness of a creative force inside us guiding us into this world, through it, and eventually to our eternal home allows us to fulfill a purpose on this earth.

Such a purpose is beyond our own ability to really know. Yet, we can open our heart enough to allow our purpose to find us. This is done by recognizing that the things in life that really matter ARE the things in life that isn’t matter.

Yes, it is our soul’s longing to fulfill the purpose for which we came to earth for. No one really knows how a baby is conceived totally. Science and human understanding still hasn’t been able to fully comprehend such a force of nature. We can only embrace what is beyond us and find a way to bring into being forces of nature such as a tiny child.

When a child is born, we are in awe. The miracle of birth creates something inside us all. It is the remembrance that life does not come from us. Instead, life comes through us. As such, we are living in a dream come true. All of us are probably living our soul’s purpose more than we know, and even, can know. It is the mystery of all mysteries.

This does not explain why some of us find peace and other’s find pain. But, such a philosophy will enable us all to find grace in knowing our lives create in our world facets of ourselves we all are a part of. An understanding of such grace gives every one of us a chance to find mercy and grace and the same unconditional love we came into the world with when we were born.

Sam Oliver

Chapple, R. M. 2012 Workingman’s Dead: Notes on some 17th to 19th century memorials, from the graveyards of Killora and Killogilleen, Craughwell, Co. Galway, Ireland. Part I Blogspot post

by Robert M Chapple

Remembrance Article

by Lewis Stockwell

Published in 'Trench Footnotes', the Journal of the Hertfordshire Constabulary Great War Society, (Dec, 2011).

Remembrance is a part of many people's lives and cultures yet it is very often just accepted. This paper forms a part... more Remembrance is a part of many people's lives and cultures yet it is very often just accepted. This paper forms a part of a wider project that is intending to decipher the 'code of remembrance': the acts that form the commemoration process and place activities into a cultural tradition. This is a brief insight into the vast array of areas covered by the ideas and concepts of 'Remembrance'.

Where do Cats Go?: Reflections on Death Post Patriarchal Christianity by Sara Frykenberg

by Feminism and Religion

originally posted in the Feminism and Religion Project

The reason I am speaking about death today is two-fold.  First, I have been somewhat preoccupied with the concept... more The reason I am speaking about death today is two-fold.  First, I have been somewhat preoccupied with the concept of death since entering a new decade of my life.  I no longer believe in the evangelical vision of heaven I learned about in my youth; but as an uncomfortable “un”-Christian, I also have no satisfactory vision to replace it.  Or rather, there are many visions I find appealing, but none that I “believe in,” as I had believed in heaven.  My family is getting older, my parents have been sick in the last few years, and I often feel that I have more to lose now than I used to.

My second reason for considering death today is that last Wednesday, Mimi, our family cat of 24 years—yes, 24—passed away.  After spending all nine of her lives living, Mimi could no longer eat and was suffering.  My mother had her put down after we all said goodbye; we held a funeral for her and buried her among the lilies in our yard, her home.

My sisters and myself were very, very saddened by Mimi’s passing; but my mother took it hardest of all.  Mimi had been her companion, her friend, her lap warmer, her snuggle buddy, her alarm clock and, we often joked, her favorite child for over two decades.  I wanted to comfort my mother; but my protest that it didn’t matter what the (her) Church said, Mimi was with the God/dess, was maybe, not very helpful.  It perhaps, only reminded her that in her view, I too am not going to heaven.

Exposer le cadavre de l'ennemi

by Hadrien Rambach

Danses Macabres d'Europe. Bulletin no. 44, January 2012, p. 20

Report of the recent sale of four skulls, apparently displayed in Prague 1621-1848. Report of the recent sale of four skulls, apparently displayed in Prague 1621-1848.

Shakespeare's Continuity Through the Daughter

by Dianne Hunter

Poetics of Melancholy and Psychic Possession in Ted Hughes's Birthday Letters and Other Haunted Texts

by Dianne Hunter

Muller, Nadine, ‘Dead Husbands and Deviant Women: Investigating the Neo-Victorian Detective Widow’, Clues: A Journal of Detection, 30:1 (Spring 2012), pp.99-109

by Nadine Muller

Over the past decade, the detective widow has become a well-established character in the little explored subgenre of... more Over the past decade, the detective widow has become a well-established character in the little explored subgenre of neo-Victorian crime fiction. Considering Tasha Alexander’s Lady Emily series (2005–2011) in particular, this essay argues that the detective widow investigates the gendered characteristics and complexities of Victorian widowhood, while also detecting the artistic crimes associated with historical fiction’s imitations and adaptations of the past.

Writing Friendship, Mourning the Friend in Late Anglo-Saxon /Rules of Confraternity/

by Benjamin A. Saltzman

Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 41.2 (2011): 251-91.

Mourning the death of a friend posed a problem for late Anglo-Saxon monasticism. Newly reformed under the authority of... more Mourning the death of a friend posed a problem for late Anglo-Saxon monasticism. Newly reformed under the authority of the /Benedictine Rule/ and the /Regularis Concordia/, religious were precluded from developing personal friendships so as to protect a world in which all things—including friends—must be held in common. Within this context, two Old English documents, so-called /Rules of Confraternity/, were inscribed in the early eleventh century into two manuscripts at New Minster, Winchester and Sherborne, establishing provisions for a reciprocal exchange of prayers following a death at a neighboring monastery. However, through scribal amendments and emendations, the Sherborne /Rules/ subtly break apart and reformulate the sense of community upheld in contemporary monastic codes: by liturgically imagining the confraternity as a bond of friendship between two monastic institutions, the Sherborne /Rules/ clear ground for the possibility that one friend might singularly mourn the death of another.

Cities of the Dead: Architectural Motifs and Burial Practices in Curaçao’s Religious and Ethnic Communities

by Laura Leibman

Co-authored with Kent Coupé . Published in Markers: Annual Journal of the Association for Gravestone Studies. XXVII, pp. 56-87.

In this study we analyze the cemeteries of Curaçao, a small desert island in the Dutch West Indies near the coast of... more In this study we analyze the cemeteries of Curaçao, a small desert island in the Dutch West Indies near the coast of Venezuela that was once a crucial player in colonial smuggling and the slave trade. Our study compares the island’s Jewish (Spanish-Portuguese), Protestant (primarily Dutch), and Catholic (Afro-Curaçaoan) cemeteries. Following the work of Dickran and Ann Tashijian, Keith Cunningham, Lynn Gosnell, Suzanna Gott and others, we interpret these stones within the religio-cultural context of the people who used them. We argue that whereas ethnic cemeteries in the United States often emphasize the distinctiveness of the communities, Curaçao’s cemeteries emphasize both ethnic distinction and ethnic elision. The permeability of racial and religious boundaries in the cemeteries reflects the island’s complicated racial history and is an important reminder of how race is often constructed differently outside of the United States. This permeability should not be confused with social equality: indeed, as racial categories became more fluid following emancipation, islanders used other categories such as wealth and status displays to reinforce social privilege within (as opposed to between) ethnic groups.

« Absence : la fuite de Mallarmé dans la lettre à Verlaine, la mort d’Anatole dans les Notes pour son tombeau »

by Sophie Létourneau

Cahiers Stéphane Mallarmé, vol. 2, 2005.

Facebook como sitio de memoria

by Ivan Chaar-Lopez

Publicado en la revista '80 grados', 2011.

Los medios sociales son tan ubicuos como el aire que respiramos. Por todos lados nos topamos con algún anuncio,... more Los medios sociales son tan ubicuos como el aire que respiramos. Por todos lados nos topamos con algún anuncio, imagen, aplicación, mensaje o aparato que nos retrotrae a la utilización de algún medio social: teléfonos móviles, redes sociales, cámaras portátiles, pda, tablets, etc. Los medios sociales han atravesado las prácticas relacionadas a los rituales y espacios de la memoria. Además de ser protocolos de información y programación, los medios sociales son prácticas que significan la realidad que remedian.

Does the internet change how we die and mourn? A review article. (2011-12)

by Wendy Moncur

Tony Walter, Rachid Hourizi, Wendy Moncur, Stacey Pitsillides.
Omega: Journal of Death & Dying, 64(4), 275-302.

The article outlines the issues that the internet presents to death studies. Part 1 describes a range of online... more The article outlines the issues that the internet presents to death studies. Part 1 describes a range of online practices that may affect dying, the funeral, grief and memorialisation, inheritance and archaeology; it also summarises the kinds of research that have been done in these fields. Part 2 argues that these new online practices have implications for, and may be illuminated by, key concepts in death studies: the sequestration (or separation from everyday life) of death and dying, disenfranchisement of grief, private grief, social death, illness and grief narratives, continuing bonds with the dead, and the presence of the dead in society. In particular, social network sites can bring dying and grieving out of both the private and public realms and into the everyday life of social networks beyond the immediate family, and provide an audience for once private communications with the dead.

Keywords: dying, social death, bereavement, digital, internet, social networks, Facebook, illness narratives, disenfranchised grief, community, inclusion, collaboration

The White Poppy

by John Barry

Remembering all war deaths and challenging the culture of violence Remembering all war deaths and challenging the culture of violence

Memory, Myth, and The National Mall

by Barry Spector

Duties to the Dead? Earnest Imagination and Remembrance

by Patrick Stokes

in Patrick Stokes and Adam Buben (eds) Kierkegaard and Death (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2011) pp.253-73

Critics of Works of Love have seen that book's claim that the "work of love in remembering one who has died"... more Critics of Works of Love have seen that book's claim that the "work of love in remembering one who has died" represents the "the most unselfish, freest and faithful love" as emblematic of everything that is wrong with Kierkegaardian ethics: "he demands," according to Adorno, "that love behave towards all men as if they were dead." Many have sought to defend Kierkegaard on the basis that he offers remembrance of the dead not as a morally valuable practice in itself, but as a heuristic device for checking and calibrating our relationships with the living. But as I argue in this paper, Kierkegaard does indeed think remembrance is a genuine duty to (not merely regarding) the dead, even though the dead are "no more." Drawing on Kierkegaard's work more broadly, I outline the property of morally-charged phenomenal 'co-presence' with the dead that allows deceased persons to persist as moral patients. The account of remembrance that emerges is, I claim, one that captures many important aspects of our practices of mourning and commemoration.

Piemiņa un atmiņa: divas parādības vēlo viduslaiku Livonijas reliģiskajā un laicīgajā dzīvē [Remembrance and Memory: Two Phenomena in the Sacral and Profane Life of the Late Medieval Livonia]

by Gustavs Strenga

This article was intended as a brief study on remembrance (memoria) and memory in the late medieval Livonia as... more
This article was intended as a brief study on remembrance (memoria) and memory in the late medieval Livonia as the first scholarly steps in this field. Although studies of medieval remembrance and memory have undergone intense development in Western scholarship, in Latvian scholarship this field has been left completely untouched. The two main persons I am dealing with in this article are the Dominican Nicolaus Sapientis (lived in the mid-15th century) and the provost of the Riga Cathedral chapter Dietrich Nagel (1400–1468/69). The case of Nicolaus Sapientis shows how he remembered two deceased persons – positively, the bishop of Courland Johannes Tiergart and, negatively, the prior of the Dominican friary in Riga, Nicolaus van der Pernow. In two letters to the Riga town council, Sapientis shows his attitudes towards remembrance clearly – Tiergart receives his respect, but van der Pernow disgrace because of Sapientis’ conflict with him. If van der Pernow before his death, or his fellow friars after his death, had not preserved the memoria of him, van der Pernow’s remembrance could be endangered and his soul could be considered damned for suffering in the purgatory or even hell.
The story of Dietrich Nagel and his memoria has been less dramatic. Nagel clearly formulated the late medieval understanding of memoria in a document (1447) which preserves not only his own memoria but also remembrance of three other individuals. Nagel wrote that it is the obligation of every good Christian to remember the souls who are suffering in the purgatory. The essence of the whole late medieval understanding of memoria, as revealed here, is to be remembered after one’s death in order to escape long suffering in the purgatory. In the mentioned document Dietrich Nagel successfully constructed his own remembrance to ensure that it will be kept after his death.