The Power of Death Contemporary Reflections on Death in Western Society [Paperback]

The social and cultural changes of the last century have transformed death from an everyday fact to something hidden from view. Shifting between the practical and the theoretical, the professional and the intimate, the real and the fictitious, this collection of essays explores the continued power of death over our lives. It examines the idea and experience of death from an interdisciplinary perspective, including studies of changing burial customs throughout Europe; an account of adying party in the Netherlands; examinations of the fascination with violent death in crime fiction and the phenomenon of serial killer art; analyses of death and bereavement in poetry, fiction, and autobiography; and a look at audience reactions to depictions of death on screen. By studying and considering how death is thought about in the contemporary era, we might restore the natural place it has in our lives.

List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors

Introduction
Ricarda Vidal and Maria-Jos? Blanco

PART I: DEATH IN SOCIETY

Chapter 1.?Life Extension, Immortality and the Patient Voice
Catherine Jenkins

Chapter 2.?Beyond Mourning and Melancholia
Lynne M. Simpson

Chapter 3.?War and Requiem Compositions in the Twentieth Century
Wolfgang Marx

PART II: DEATH IN LITERATURE

Chapter 4.?Understanding Death/Writing Bereavement: The writers experience
Maria-Jos? Blanco L?pez de Lerma

Chapter 5.?A Way of Sorrows for the Twentieth Century: Margherita GuidaccisLaVia Crucis dellumanit?
Eleanor David

Chapter 6.From Self-Erasure to Self-Affirmation: Communally Acknowledged Good Death in Ernest Gainess?A Lesson l£>