History Commons^™

Illusions Of Freedom? A History Of Attitudes Toward Death, Dominick Bucca

All Theses

My thesis explores the historical question: “Is there any freedom from death?” through three figures within the Western metaphysical tradition: Thucydides (460-400 BCE), Augustine (354-430 CE), and Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616). In so doing, my thesis suggests the following: for Thucydides, freedom from death arose through the immortality of empire; for Augustine, through the immortality of God’s grace; and for Cervantes, through the immortality of narratives/attitudes of immortality. Moreover, I nest my claim within an exploratory narrative. Which is to say that, lifting a page from Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), I have attempted to break away from the near total …

Death Notice For Leo Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Obituary pending.

The Ghost Story Of The Great War: Spiritualism, Psychical Research And The British War Experience, 1914-1939., Kyle Falcon

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines the role of the Great War in shaping British spiritualism and psychical between 1914 and 1939. Spiritualism can be defined as the belief in the survival of the human personality and the possibility of communication with the dead, particularly through the séance. Psychical research represented a more scientifically oriented and research focused approach to the supernatural. These movements originated in the nineteenth century as traditional religious authority waned. Meanwhile, scientists had harnessed unseen forces to make wireless communications possible, while others probed the mysterious world of the unconscious mind through trance. Spiritualism and psychical research flourished in …

Death And Taxidermy: How The Process Of Taxidermy Ties In To Modern Society’S Discomfort With Death, Caitlin Monroe

History Undergraduate Theses

“Death and Taxidermy: How the Process of Taxidermy ties in to Modern Society’s Discomfort with Death” examines the relationship between current western discomfort with taxidermy and the strengthening relationship of companion animals with humans. This strengthening of the relationship is facilitating the rising level of grief that comes with losing a pet thus allowing that loss to equate to the loss of a family member. By dispelling the mystery surrounding the process by which a taxidermy specimen is made, where it comes from and why these specimens are vital to educational advancement in the museum, we can discuss why society …

Damar On Fridays, Maja Sadikovic

Theses

Abstract

These poems are about the first hand witnessing of the Balkan war and its visceral repercussions, ripping of families across generations and continents due to religious intolerance, and an identity crisis within the diaspora of the former Yugoslav people. They interact with appeals of loss, in terms of bodies, memory, and material, despair within the identity of the self in and outside of religion, and the perception of love and belonging, but not necessarily in that order. They are largely inspired by victim story-telling, translations of conversations with natives of the former Yugoslavia and their children, and ramifications of …

“Inhumanly Beautiful”: The Aesthetics Of The Nineteenth-Century Deathbed Scene, Margo Masur

English Theses

Death today is hidden from our everyday lives so it cannot intermingle with the general public. So when a family member dies, their body becomes an object in need of disposal; no longer can they be recognized as the familiar person they once were. To witness death is to force individuals to confront the truths of human existence, and for most of us seeing such a sight would fill us with an emotion of disgust. Yet during the nineteenth century, the burden of care towards the sick or dying was shared by a community of family, neighbors, and friends; the …

La Muerte, La Memoria Y La Filosofía Existencial En La Literatura Testimonial Pos-Dictatorial De Primo Levi, Jorge Semprún Y Jacobo Timerman, Andrew Mcnair

Senior Theses and Projects

What effect does the ubiquity of death in a traumatic experience have on an individual's memory and soul, and how is this manifested in one's written testimony? Through the analysis of their philosophical introspection, the testimonies of Primo Levi's The Drowned and the Saved, Jorge Semprún's Literature or Life, and Jacobo Timerman's Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number meditate on the atrocities they experienced during Levi and Semprún's incarceration under the Nazi regime in Europe between 1942 and 1945, and Timerman's imprisonment under the regime of Jorge Rafael Videla in Argentina between 1976 and 1983. The …

(Review) Mémoires Carolingiennes: L’Épitaphe Entre Célébration Mémorielle, Genre Littéraire Et Manifeste Politique, Frederick S. Paxton

History Faculty Publications

The article reviews the book "Mémoires carolingiennes: L'épitaphe entre célébration mémorielle, genre littéraire et manifeste politique (milieu VIIIe-début XIe siècle," by Cécile Treffort.

Signa Mortifera: Death And Prognostication In Early Medieval Monastic Medicine, Frederick S. Paxton

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Immigrant's Provisions For Mortality, Inga Wiehl

The Bridge

It is my experience that we avoid funerals because they remind us of our mortality for which provisions must be made. Our resistance has two causes: we dread - in accordance with the human tendency to resist change - the most profound change of all, from life to death, mortality itself. Secondly, we dislike having to provide for our own departure according to the custom of the country or the taste of the individual.

Four Poems On Death By Nis Petersen, Otto M. Sorensen

The Bridge

Very litte of Nis Petersen's poetry has been translated into English, and yet he is regarded as one of Denmark's finest poets in this century. In the following I offer readers of The Bridge translations and interpretations of four poems that deal with death, a subject that concerned Petersen over a considerable period of time. The reader should be cautioned, however, not to deem the poems typical of the poet. Death is one of many themes that run through his work. I have reproduced the originals here from the poet's Samlede Digte. ed. Hans Brix, Gyldendal, 1951 .

The World Of Robert Storm Petersen, Allen E. Hye

The Bridge

Thirty years after his death in March, 1949, Robert Storm Petersen is still regarded as Denmark's greatest humorist; in fact, he is enjoying an astonishing revival in Scandinavian popular culture. T-shirts, advertising campaigns, key chains - all bear his likeness or that of his loveable cartoon characters. Even a museum has been established (Pile Alle 2, 2000 Copenhagen F) to promote his memory and humor. Since its founding in the fall of 1977, the museum, under the direction of Jens Bing, has been sorting and cataloging books, paintings, memorabilia, including the humorist's extensive pipe collection, and the some 60,000 drawings …

Ua68/10/1 Sociological Symposium No. 1 – The Sociology Of Death, Wku Sociology

WKU Archives Records

Table of Contents

• Fulton, Robert L. & Gilbert Geis. Social Change & Social Conflict: The Rabbi & the Funeral
• Kane, John J. The Irish Wake: A Sociological Appraisal
• Loveland, Glenn G. The Effects of Bereavement on Certain Religious Attitudes & Behaviors
• Morgan, Al. The Bier Barons
• Porter, William H., Jr. Some Sociological Notes on a Century of Change in the Funeral Business
• Salomone, Jerome J. An Empirical Report on Some Controversial American Funeral Practices
• Spilka, Bernard, Robert J. Pelligrini & Kathryn Dailey. Religion, American Values & Death Perspectives
• Strauss, Anselm L., Barney G. Glaser & Jeanne C. Quint. The Nonaccountability …