This book responds to a growing interest in death, dying and the dead within and beyond the field of death studies. The collection defines an understanding of ‘difficult death’ and examines the differences between death, dying and the dead, as well as exploring the ethical challenges of researching death in mediated form. The collection is attendant to the ways in which difficult deaths are imbricated in power structures both before and after they become mediatised in culture. As such, the work navigates the many political and social complexities and inequalities – what might be deemed the difficulties – of death, dying and the dead. The book seeks to expand understandings of the difficulty of death in media and culture through a wide range of chapters from different contexts focused on literature, film, television, and in online environments, as well as several chapters examining news reportage of difficult deaths.

This book responds to a growing interest in death, dying and the dead within and beyond the field of death studies. The collection defines an understanding of ‘difficult death’ and examines the differences between death, dying and the dead, as well as exploring the ethical challenges of researching death in mediated form. The collection is attendant to the ways in which difficult deaths are imbricated in power structures both before and after they become mediatised in culture. As such, the work navigates the many political and social complexities and inequalities – what might be deemed the difficulties – of death, dying and the dead. The book seeks to expand understandings of the difficulty of death in media and culture through a wide range of chapters from different contexts focused on literature, film, television, and in online environments, as well as several chapters examining news reportage of difficult deaths.

This book is the first of its kind to examine key topics in death, dying, and bereavement through a critical lens, highlighting how the understanding and experience of death can vary considerably, based on social, cultural, historical, political, and medical contexts. It looks at the complex ways in which death and dying are managed, from the political level down to end- of- life care, and the inequalities that surround and impact experiences of death, dying, and bereavement. Readers are introduced to key theories, such as the medicalisation of dying, as well as contemporary issues, such as social movements, pandemics, and assisted dying. The book stresses how death is not only a biological process or event but rather shaped by a range of intersecting factors. Issues of inequalities in health, inequities in support, and intersectional analyses are brought to the fore, and each chapter is dedicated to an issue that has interdisciplinary resonance, thus showcasing the wider sociocultural and political factors that impact this time of life. This book is valuable reading for scholars in thanatology and death studies, and for those in related fields such as sociology of health, medical and social anthropology, and interdisciplinary social science courses.

This book is the first edited collection to explore Shakespeare's life as depicted on the modern stage and screen. Focusing on the years 1998-2023, it uniquely identifies a 25-year trend for depicting Shakespeare, his family and his social circle in theatre, film and television. Interrogating Shakespeare's afterlife across stage and screen media, the volume explores continuities and changes in the form since the release of Shakespeare in Love, which it positions as the progenitor of recent Shakespearean biofictions in Anglo-American culture. It traces these developments through the 21st century, from pivotal moments such as the Shakespeare 400 celebrations in 2016, up to the quatercentenary of the publication of the First Folio, whose portrait helped make the author a globally recognisable icon. The collection takes account of recent Anglo-American socio-political, cultural and literary concerns including feminism, digital media and the biopic and superhero genres. The wide variety of works discussed range from All is True and Hamnet to Upstart Crow, Bill and even The Lego Movie. Offering insights from actors, dramatists and literary and performance scholars, it considers why artists are drawn to Shakespeare as a character and how theatre and screen media mediate his status as literary genius.

With intense and violent portrayals of death becoming ever more common on television and in cinema and the growth of death-centric movies, series, texts, songs, and video clips attracting a wide and enthusiastic global reception, we might well ask whether death has ceased to be a taboo. What makes thanatic themes so desirable in popular culture? Do representations of the macabre and gore perpetuate or sublimate violent desires? Has contemporary popular culture removed our unease with death? Can social media help us cope with our mortality, or can music and art present death as an aesthetic phenomenon? This volume adopts an interdisciplinary approach to the discussion of the social, cultural, aesthetic, and theoretical aspects of the ways in which popular culture understands, represents, and manages death, bringing together contributions from around the world focused on television, cinema, popular literature, social media and the internet, art, music, and advertising.

This book investigates death as part of contemporary everyday experience and practices. Through a cultural sociological lens, it studies death as it remains constantly at the edge of our consciousness, shaping the ways in which we move through social reality. As such, Death Matters is a significant contribution to death studies, going beyond traditional parameters of the field by addressing the cultural omnipresence of death. The contributions analyse several death-related meaning-making processes, arguing that meanings emerging from culturally shared narratives, social institutions, and material conditions, are just as important as ’death practices’ in understanding the role of death in society. Drawing on the related themes of places of absence and presence, disease and bodies, and persons and non-persons, the authors explore a variety of areas of social life, from haunting to celebrity deaths, to move the notion of death from the margins of social reality to ongoing everyday life. This far-reaching collection will be of use to scholars and students across death studies, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, culture, media and communication studies.

From the ritual object which functions as a substitute for the dead - thus acting as a medium for communicating with the ’other world’ - to the representation of death, violence and suffering in media, or the use of online social networks as spaces of commemoration, media of various kinds are central to the communication and performance of death-related socio-cultural practices of individuals, groups and societies. This second volume of the Studies in Death, Materiality and Time series explores the ways in which such practices are subject to ’re-mediation’; that is to say, processes by which well-known practices are re-presented in new ways through various media formats. Presenting rich, interdisciplinary new empirical case studies and fieldwork from the US and Europe, Asia, The Middle East, Australasia and Africa, Mediating and Remediating Death shows how different media forms contribute to the shaping and transformation of various forms of death and commemoration, whether in terms of their range and distribution, their relation to users or their roles in creating and maintaining communities. With its broad and multi-faceted focus on how uses of media can redraw the traditional boundaries of death-related practices and create new cultural realities, this book will appeal to scholars across the social sciences and humanities with interests in ritual and commemoration practices, the sociology and anthropology of death and dying, and cultural and media studies.

Deconstructing Death deals with some of the most recent changes and transformations within the realms of death, dying, bereavement, and care in contemporary Nordic countries. The book deals with some of the major - as well as some of the less conspicuous - changes in the cultural and social engagement with the phenomenon of death. Among the themes touched upon are: organ transplantation, death education, communication with the dead, changes in commemorative rituals, mourning practices on the internet, parental responses to children's suicide, death control, the practice and ethics of end-of-life care, and the lonely death. Deconstructing Death contains contributions written by researchers and practitioners from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland, with professional and academic backgrounds within areas such as sociology, anthropology, religious studies, and palliative care.

"This is a singular reference tool . . . essential for academic libraries." --Reference & User Services Quarterly "Students, professionals, and scholars in the social sciences and health professions are fortunate to have the ′unwieldy corpus of knowledge and literature′ on death studies organized and integrated. Highly recommended for all collections." --CHOICE "Excellent and highly recommended." --BOOKLIST "Well researched with lengthy bibliographies . . . The index is rich with See and See Also references . . . Its multidisciplinary nature makes it an excellent addition to academic collections." --LIBRARY JOURNAL "Researchers and students in many social sciences and humanities disciplines, the health and legal professions, and mortuary science will find the Handbook of Death and Dying valuable. Lay readers will also appreciate the Handbook′s wide-ranging coverage of death-related topics. Recommended for academic, health sciences, and large public libraries." --E-STREAMS Dying is a social as well as physiological phenomenon. Each society characterizes and, consequently, treats death and dying in its own individual ways—ways that differ markedly. These particular patterns of death and dying engender modal cultural responses, and such institutionalized behavior has familiar, economical, educational, religious, and political implications. The Handbook of Death and Dying takes stock of the vast literature in the field of thanatology, arranging and synthesizing what has been an unwieldy body of knowledge into a concise, yet comprehensive reference work. This two-volume handbook will provide direction and momentum to the study of death-related behavior for many years to come. Key Features More than 100 contributors representing authoritative expertise in a diverse array of disciplines Anthropology Family Studies History Law Medicine Mortuary Science Philosophy Psychology Social work Sociology Theology A distinguished editorial board of leading scholars and researchers in the field More than 100 definitive essays covering almost every dimension of death-related behavior Comprehensive and inclusive, exploring concepts and social patterns within the larger topical concern Journal article length essays that address topics with appropriate detail Multidisciplinary and cross-cultural coverage EDITORIAL BOARD Clifton D. Bryant, Editor-in-Chief Patty M. Bryant, Managing Editor Charles K. Edgley, Associate Editor Michael R. Leming, Associate Editor Dennis L. Peck, Associate Editor Kent L. Sandstrom, Associate Editor Watson F. Rogers, II, Assistant Editor

By comparing the findings from Kalish's and Reynolds's landmark 1970's Death and Ethnicity Study to their own present study, Hayslip and Peveto examine the impact of cultural change on death attitudes. With a focus on African-American, Asian-American, and Hispanic-American subpopulations, with Caucasians treated as a comparison group, the authors come to several conclusions, including: the shift toward more interest in being informed of one's own terminal prognosis a more personal approach to funerals and mourning observances a greater focus on family and relationships