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Photography represents a medium in which the moment of death can be
captured and preserved, the image becoming a mechanism through
which audiences are beguiled by the certainty of their own
mortality. Examining a spectrum of post-mortem images, Photography
and Death considers various ways in which the death image has been
framed and what these styles communicate about changing social
attitudes related to dying, mourning and the afterlife. Presenting
a fresh perspective on how we might view death photography in the
context of our contemporary cultural milieu, this book brings
together a range of historical examples to create a richer
narrative of how we see, understand and discuss death in both the
private and public forum. Building upon existing publications which
relate explicitly to the study of death, dying and cultures of
mourning, the book discusses topics such as post-mortem
portraiture, the Civil War, Spiritualism and lynching. These are
positioned alongside contemporary representations of death, as seen
in celebrity death images and forensic photography. Uncovering an
important historical contrast, in which modern notions of death are
a comment on ownership or an emotionless, clinical state, Harris
highlights the various ways that the deceased body is a site of
contestation and fascination. An engaging read for students and
researchers with an interest in death studies, this book represents
a unique account of the various ways that attitudes about death
have been shaped through the photographic image.
Within popular culture, death is not the end, but instead a space
where the dead can exert agency whilst entertaining the consumer.
Popular culture enables the dead to be consumed by the living on a
mass global scale, actively engaging them with issues of mortality.
This book develops the sociological intersectionality between
death, the dead and popular culture by examining the agency of the
dead. Drawing upon the posthumous careers of the celebrity dead and
organ transplantation mythology in popular culture the dead are
shown to not be hampered by death but to benefit from the symbolic
and economic value they can generate. Meanwhile the fictional dead
- the Undead and the dead in crime drama - are conceptualised
through morbid sensibility and morbid space to mobilise consumer
consideration of mortality and even challenge the public wisdom
that contemporary Western society is in death denial and that death
is taboo. Death and the dead, within the parameters of popular
culture, form a palatable and normative bridge between viewers and
mortality, iterating the innate value and hidden depths of popular
culture in the study of contemporary society. This book will be of
interest to anybody who researches death, popular culture and
questions of mortality.
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