Thanatology

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

From the Mortician's Scalpel to the Butcher's Knife: Towards an Animal Thanatology

by Sarah Bezan

Published in the Journal for Critical Animal Studies 10.1 (2012).

Proceeding from Judith Butler’s evocative suggestion that unsettling the matter of bodies initiates “new ways for... more Proceeding from Judith Butler’s evocative suggestion that unsettling the matter of bodies initiates “new ways for bodies to matter” (Bodies That Matter), this paper investigates the material reality and ethical implications of animal and human death, taking the corpse/carcass as a dramatic site of rupture.  While a number of anthropocentric projects from Linnaeus to Descartes have attempted to consolidate the matter of animal-human relations into a cohesive epistemology that emphasizes the alterity of animality, this study regards Death itself as the ultimate Other, and suggests that it is upon the recognition of our shared mortality that an ethical foundation is formed.

Through an examination of the history of veterinary medicine, the carnivalesque corpse and the practice of public dissection, along with an analysis of artistic productions by Janieta Eyre, Damien Hirst, and Gunther Von Hagen (Body Worlds), I argue that the ontological “unsettling” of the corpse/carcass opens up a productive space in which the plurality of being is understood.

„Jenseits der Linie“. Ausnahmezustand, Sklaverei und Thanatopolitik zwischen Aufklärung und (Post-)Kolonialismus.

by Jeanette Ehrmann

In: Daniel Loick (Ed.): Der Nomos der Moderne. Die politische Philosophie Giorgio Agambens. Baden-Baden: Nomos, pp. 128-148.

The Catholic Way of Death: Contemporary Reflections on Thanatology and Theology

by K Jason Wardley

Published in eSharp 7 (2006); http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/esharp/issues/7/

How can we adequately acknowledge the stranger in modern theology? Drawing on the work of post-Heideggerian theorist... more How can we adequately acknowledge the stranger in modern theology? Drawing on the work of post-Heideggerian theorist of language and death, Jacques Derrida, and his own creative re-reading of Martin Heidegger and Emmanuel Levinas, the work of theologian and phenomenologist Jean-Luc Marion work lies on the boundary between theology and thanatology and has value in informing our language in talking about and recognising the other.

From death to final disposition: The role of technology in the post-mortem interval

by Wendy Moncur

Accepted for CHI2012.
Austin, Texas, USA.
Co-authored with Jan Bikker, Elaine, Kasket and John Troyer.

In this paper, we describe the collaborative processes and stakeholders involved in the period from when a person dies... more In this paper, we describe the collaborative processes and stakeholders involved in the period from when a person dies until they are laid to rest: the funeral, final disposition of the body, and (in some circumstances) victim identification. The rich mixture of technologies currently deployed during this brief period are categorized and critically analyzed. We then reflect on what our findings mean for the design space related to End of Life, and for the wider HCI community.

A tanatologia de Rafael da Conceição

by José Flávio Pimentel Teixeira

Publicado no jornal "Domingo", edição de 23 de Setembro de 2007

Texto lido na apresentação do livro "Lied Para Yonnis-Fred e Maelle (Paternidade, Morte e Quotidiano. Construções... more Texto lido na apresentação do livro "Lied Para Yonnis-Fred e Maelle (Paternidade, Morte e Quotidiano. Construções no Mar, em Terra e no Ar …)” de Rafael da Conceição.

Thanatopolitics: On the Use of Death for Mobilizing Political Life

by Stuart Murray

(on the politics of the suicide bomber), Polygraph: An International Journal of Politics and Culture, vol. 18 (2006): 191-215

Neither Life Nor Death: Poe's Aesthetic Transfiguration of Popular Notions of Death

by Ruth Mayer

In the early nineteenth century, a vast network of scientific and pseudo-scientific publications on the nature,... more In the early nineteenth century, a vast network of scientific and pseudo-scientific publications on the nature, meaning and status of death evolved, which induced a pervasive reev¬al¬ua¬tion of long-established cultural tene¬ts. I will read Edgar Allan Poe's fictional approaches to the topic of death and dying by light of these new ideas and posi¬tions. Thus, the popu¬lar medi¬cal as¬sump¬tion of an in¬ter¬medi¬ate pe¬riod bet¬ween life and death resur¬faces in Poe's writing when he envi¬sions an ideal state of tota¬li¬ty and indi¬vidual inte¬grity which is stric¬tly spea¬king neit¬her life nor de¬ath¬. However, as Poe tries to forego the medi¬cally central no¬tion of tran¬sito¬ri¬ness, he ends up tot¬al¬iz¬ing the inter¬mediate state and thus renders it virtually incom¬mu¬nicable. In order to over¬come this pre¬di¬ca¬ment Poe even¬tu¬ally aban¬dons the fic¬tio¬nal rhe¬to¬ric of sub¬jec¬tive ex¬pe¬rien¬ce al¬together, as he adopts with Eureka a phi¬lo¬so¬phical and scien¬ti¬fic mode of re¬pre¬senta¬tion.

Dying to be seen: An interpretive study of porcelain portraits on grave markers

by Patrick Brooks

Performing Sorrow: Ephemerality and Mourning

by Mary O'Neill

Performance of Memory in the Arts, Radboud University, Nijmegen.

Performing Sorrow: Ephemerality and Mourning.

Mary O'Neill


The endurance of the form of... more Performing Sorrow: Ephemerality and Mourning.

Mary O'Neill


The endurance of the form of story telling and the compulsion to tell them suggests that telling stories is not merely an entertainment, an optional extra, which we can chose to engage with or not, but a fundamental aspect of being.

We tell stories to construct and maintain our world. When our sense of reality is damaged through traumatic experiences we attempt to repair our relationship with the world through the repeated telling of our stories. These stories are not just a means of telling but also an attempt to understand. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick describes knowledge as performative i.e. "knowledge does rather than simply is", I would suggest that stories are not just performed but are also performative. Stories 'do' rather than 'are'. Narratives of sorrow and pain do not leave us unchanged, but can, in fact, motivate us to act. In this paper I will look at the stories told by artworks that embody the disruption of the traditional narrative of western art, of durability and immortality.

These embody the process of decay that tells a story of existence overshadowed by the knowledge of certain death and the telling of the story as a means of confronting that knowledge. The ephemeral art object often tells a story in circumstance when there are no words, when we have nothing left to say. Given the eventual disappearance of these works, this paper also addresses the challenge of transience in a context where permanence is seen as a prerequisite for success.

Living with the Dead: cinematic love and death.

by Mary O'Neill

Representations of Love in Film and Television
November  11 - 14, 2010, Milwaukee (USA)

In recent years the understanding of grief as a consequence of love and death has developed beyond the model that... more In recent years the understanding of grief as a consequence of love and death has developed beyond the model that suggested that the bereaved would eventually ‘recover’ and be able to replace the loved one.  More recently bereavement theories has incorporated the knowledge, which has so often been expressed by the bereaved in the arts, that ‘recovery’ my not in fact be possible or desirable for the bereaved person. In this paper I will discuss two films that explore the consequences of love and death. In Christopher Hampton’s Carrington (1995) we witness the intense love of Dora Carrington for Lytton Strachey which results in her being unable to face a life without him and consequently commits suicide. 
In Francois Ozon’s Under the Sand (2001) we also see a character who is also unable to accommodate the death of her husband and appears to her friend to have ‘gone mad’. These films will be discussed in relation to the recent work of Colin Murray Parkes and the work of John Bowly, both of whom have contributed significantly to our understand of the relationship between love and death.

Speaking to the Dead

by Mary O'Neill

Speaking to the Dead

Abstract
How can we speak of grief and mourning? There are things; events,... more Speaking to the Dead

Abstract
How can we speak of grief and mourning? There are things; events, horrors, places of sorrow and love, for which we have no words. Grief can leave us mute, it can paralyse – there is nothing more to be said, nothing more to be done. However, grief can be very eloquent. Rather than presenting us with a privileged view, which excludes those who have not shared the experience, works of grief can provide a vehicle for understanding. In this paper, I will discuss ephemeral art works, which embody the experience of mourning, I will consider how these artworks evoke the presence of the dead as well as highlight the necessity of speaking to the dead.  Focusing on four works - Untitled (Portrait of Dad)(1991) Felix Gonzalez Torres and Strange Fruit (for David)(1992–1997) Zoe Leonard, Collecting Displaced Bones (2005) Dadang Christanto and Reading to Corpses (2005) Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, I will explore how the circumstances leading to the production of these works has influenced the engagement with transience that they represent. In ephemeral artworks, there is a form of sacrifice; the artworld is deprived of the durability that enables art to fulfil its role in creating the myth of immortality. However there is the greater gain of an understanding of the role of permanence in art as contributing to our death denying cultural worldview and why transience challenges that function. There is also the possibility that when a culture no longer provides adequate forms of mourning, these works can act as a means of engaging with bereavement, disenfranchised grief and ambiguous loss.



Constructions of Death, Mourning, and Memory Conference 
Woodcliff Lake Hilton
Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey
October  27-29, 2006

The Practice of Cultivating Bodhichitta and Maranasati

by Jennifer R. Stevens

My purpose in researching this subject was multi-faceted.  I wanted to explore the Tibetan Buddhist perspective... more My purpose in researching this subject was multi-faceted.  I wanted to explore the Tibetan Buddhist perspective regarding the process of actual dying and the transfer of consciousness (Phowa), that is believed to occur following the death and I planned to investigate the rituals and meditations associated with their understanding of death.  I, also, hoped to discover how Buddhist thought can help supplement Western practices of end-of-life care, including the methods of training, the use of rituals, and the ways of offering support to those who companion the dying.  I hope to understand ways to implement Buddhist wisdom to deepen and enrich our lives and our dying in the West, especially if a patient is open to supplementing their own spiritual path with conscious dying.  Finally, I intended to suggest some areas where further inquiry might be of benefit to the field of psychology and to the practice of working with death and dying.