Death, the dead and popular culture / Ruth Penfold-Mounce.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Penfold-Mounce, Ruth, 1979- author.

Series:

Emerald studies in death and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Death.

Death--Social aspects.

Death in popular culture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (156 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Bingley : Emerald Publishing Limited, [2018]

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Intro

Death, The Dead and Popular Culture

Contents

List of Figures

Preface

1. Introduction: The Agency of the Dead

The Structure and Content of the Book

2. Posthumous Careers of Celebrities

Dead Celebrity Parables

Celebrity Dead Earners

Owning the Celebrity Dead

Conclusion

Notes

3. The Afterlife of Corpses: Organ Transplantation

The Roots of Transplantation Mythology

Four Prominent Transplantation Myths

Transplantation, Bodily Control and Cellular Memory

4. The Undead, Morbid Sensibility and Morbid Space

The Undead and Morbid Sensibility

The Undead and Morbid Space

The Body and Safe Morbid Space

Selfhood and Provocative Morbid Space

5. Confronting Death and the Authentic Dead

Confronting Death through Denial

Gazing Upon the Authentic Dead

Crime, Forensics and the Authentic Dead: The Expert Lens

6. Reflections on Encountering Death and the Dead in Popular Culture

Accessible Death

Thoughts on Using Popular Culture in Death Scholarship

References

Index.

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references.

Print version record

ISBN:

9781787430532

1787430537

9781787439436

1787439437