Corpse Encounters

An Aesthetics of Death

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Cultural Studies, Death & Dying, Customs & Traditions
Cover of the book Corpse Encounters by Jacqueline Elam, Chase Pielak, Lexington Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Jacqueline Elam, Chase Pielak ISBN: 9781498543941
Publisher: Lexington Books Publication: June 13, 2018
Imprint: Lexington Books Language: English
Author: Jacqueline Elam, Chase Pielak
ISBN: 9781498543941
Publisher: Lexington Books
Publication: June 13, 2018
Imprint: Lexington Books
Language: English

This book sustains a critical glance at the ways in which we attend to the corpse, tracing a trajectory from encounter toward considering options for disposal: veneered mortuary internment, green burial and its attendant rot, cremation and alkaline hydrolysis, donation and display, and ecological burial. Through tracing the possible futures of the dead that haunt the living, through both the stories that we tell and physical manifestations following the end of life, we expose the workings of aesthetics that shape corpses, as well as the ways in which corpses spill over, resisting aestheticization.
This book creates a space for ritualized practices surrounding death: corpse disposal; corpse aesthetics that shape both practices attendant upon and representations of the corpse; and literary, figural, and cultural representations that deploy these practices to tell a story about dead bodies—about their separation from the living, about their disposability, and ultimately about the living who survive the dead, if only for a while.
There is an aesthetics of erasure persistently at work on the dead body. It must be quickly hidden from sight to shield us from the certain trauma of our own demise, or so the unspoken argument goes. Experts—scientists, forensic specialists, death-care professionals, and law enforcement—are the only ones qualified to view the dead for any extended period of time. The rest of us, with only brief doses, inoculate ourselves from the materiality of death in complex and highly ritualized ceremonies. Beyond participating in the project of restoring our sense of finitude, we try to make sense of the untouchable, unviewable, haunting, and taboo presence of the corpse itself.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

This book sustains a critical glance at the ways in which we attend to the corpse, tracing a trajectory from encounter toward considering options for disposal: veneered mortuary internment, green burial and its attendant rot, cremation and alkaline hydrolysis, donation and display, and ecological burial. Through tracing the possible futures of the dead that haunt the living, through both the stories that we tell and physical manifestations following the end of life, we expose the workings of aesthetics that shape corpses, as well as the ways in which corpses spill over, resisting aestheticization.
This book creates a space for ritualized practices surrounding death: corpse disposal; corpse aesthetics that shape both practices attendant upon and representations of the corpse; and literary, figural, and cultural representations that deploy these practices to tell a story about dead bodies—about their separation from the living, about their disposability, and ultimately about the living who survive the dead, if only for a while.
There is an aesthetics of erasure persistently at work on the dead body. It must be quickly hidden from sight to shield us from the certain trauma of our own demise, or so the unspoken argument goes. Experts—scientists, forensic specialists, death-care professionals, and law enforcement—are the only ones qualified to view the dead for any extended period of time. The rest of us, with only brief doses, inoculate ourselves from the materiality of death in complex and highly ritualized ceremonies. Beyond participating in the project of restoring our sense of finitude, we try to make sense of the untouchable, unviewable, haunting, and taboo presence of the corpse itself.

More books from Lexington Books

Cover of the book Acoustic Technics by Jacqueline Elam, Chase Pielak
Cover of the book T.S. Eliot, Poetry, and Earth by Jacqueline Elam, Chase Pielak
Cover of the book Secondary Cities & Urban Networking in the Indian Ocean Realm, c. 1400-1800 by Jacqueline Elam, Chase Pielak
Cover of the book Religion and Politics in America's Borderlands by Jacqueline Elam, Chase Pielak
Cover of the book The Heritage-scape by Jacqueline Elam, Chase Pielak
Cover of the book Emerging Aesthetic Imaginaries by Jacqueline Elam, Chase Pielak
Cover of the book Constructing the Stalinist Body by Jacqueline Elam, Chase Pielak
Cover of the book The Vichy Past in France Today by Jacqueline Elam, Chase Pielak
Cover of the book Social Media and Social Movements by Jacqueline Elam, Chase Pielak
Cover of the book Legacies of Socialist Solidarity by Jacqueline Elam, Chase Pielak
Cover of the book Rethinking Post-Communist Rhetoric by Jacqueline Elam, Chase Pielak
Cover of the book Socializing the Classroom by Jacqueline Elam, Chase Pielak
Cover of the book Backwoodsmen as Ecocritical Motif in French Canadian Literature by Jacqueline Elam, Chase Pielak
Cover of the book Cervantes’s Novelas ejemplares by Jacqueline Elam, Chase Pielak
Cover of the book Africana Islamic Studies by Jacqueline Elam, Chase Pielak
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy