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"The Greek philosopher Diogenes said that when he died his body should be tossed over the city walls for beasts to scavenge. Why should he or anyone else care what became of his corpse? In The Work of the Dead, acclaimed cultural historian Thomas Laqueur examines why humanity has universally rejected Diogenes's argument. No culture has been indifferent to mortal remains. Even in our supposedly disenchanted scientific age, the dead body still matters--for individuals, communities, and nations. A remarkably ambitious history, The Work of the Dead offers a compelling and richly detailed account of how and why the living have cared for the dead, from antiquity to the twentieth century. The book draws on a vast range of sources--from mortuary archaeology, medical tracts, letters, songs, poems, and novels to painting and landscapes in order to recover the work that the dead do for the living: making human communities that connect the past and the future. Laqueur shows how the churchyard became the dominant resting place of the dead during the Middle Ages and why the cemetery largely supplanted it during the modern period. He traces how and why since the nineteenth century we have come to gather the names of the dead on great lists and memorials and why being buried without a name has become so disturbing. And finally, he tells how modern cremation, begun as a fantasy of stripping death of its history, ultimately failed--and how even the ashes of the victims of the Holocaust have been preserved in culture. A fascinating chronicle of how we shape the dead and are in turn shaped by them, this is a landmark work of cultural history."--… (plus d'informations)
Fascinating cultural history in the Western Hemisphere of the treatment and attitude towards mortal remains that suffers from a lack of direction. It reads more like a collection of essays about the cultural attitudes towards stiffs but it is not clear what begets what. Do the dead influence culture or does culture, science, theology, define how we treat mortal remains? Probably both, to be fair to the author.
Still literary and compelling in both scope and content. Not an easy read but worth the effort.
The author believes dead bodies serve multiple purposes (cultural, places for bodies, preservation of names, cremation) so are not to be discarded, unlike Diogenes who told his friends when he died to throw his dead body over the city walls to let it be eaten by wild animals. The author’s purpose is to describe what death leaves behind through the dead body, and to stress the importance of necronominalism to humanity “to record and gather the names of the dead in ways, and in places, and in numbers as never before. We demand to know who the dead are. We find unnamed bodies and bodiless names—those of the disappeared—unbearable “ Laqueur’s magnum opus is both thought provoking and disturbing. ( )
[Diogène le Cynique exigea] que son corps soit abandonné sans sépulture. « Aux oiseaux et aux bêtes sauvages ! » s’exclamèrent ses amis. « Pas le moins du monde, leur répondit-il, vous mettrez près de moi un bâton pour les chasser. » « Comment le pourras-tu puisque tu ne sentiras rien ? » « Dans ce cas, quelle importance que je sois dévoré par les bêtes sauvages ? » CICÉRON, Tusculanes*
Dédicace
Premiers mots
Préface
Je ne sais pas très bien quand j’ai véritablement commencé ce livre. [...]
Introduction
LE TRAVAIL DES MORTS
Au commencement était le cadavre : matière sans vie dont l’être s’est échappé. [...]
Citations
Derniers mots
Notice de désambigüisation
Directeur de publication
Courtes éloges de critiques
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
"The Greek philosopher Diogenes said that when he died his body should be tossed over the city walls for beasts to scavenge. Why should he or anyone else care what became of his corpse? In The Work of the Dead, acclaimed cultural historian Thomas Laqueur examines why humanity has universally rejected Diogenes's argument. No culture has been indifferent to mortal remains. Even in our supposedly disenchanted scientific age, the dead body still matters--for individuals, communities, and nations. A remarkably ambitious history, The Work of the Dead offers a compelling and richly detailed account of how and why the living have cared for the dead, from antiquity to the twentieth century. The book draws on a vast range of sources--from mortuary archaeology, medical tracts, letters, songs, poems, and novels to painting and landscapes in order to recover the work that the dead do for the living: making human communities that connect the past and the future. Laqueur shows how the churchyard became the dominant resting place of the dead during the Middle Ages and why the cemetery largely supplanted it during the modern period. He traces how and why since the nineteenth century we have come to gather the names of the dead on great lists and memorials and why being buried without a name has become so disturbing. And finally, he tells how modern cremation, begun as a fantasy of stripping death of its history, ultimately failed--and how even the ashes of the victims of the Holocaust have been preserved in culture. A fascinating chronicle of how we shape the dead and are in turn shaped by them, this is a landmark work of cultural history."--
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(4.4)
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Still literary and compelling in both scope and content. Not an easy read but worth the effort.
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