Palgrave Historical Studies in the Criminal Corpse and its Afterlife: When is Death?

McCorristine, Shane

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.

This volume provides a series of illuminating perspectives on the timings of death, through in-depth studies of Shakespearean tragedy, criminal execution, embalming practices, fears of premature burial, rumours of Adolf Hitler’s survival, and the legal concept of brain death. In doing so, it explores a number of questions, including: how do we know if someone is dead or not? What do people experience at the moment when they die? Is death simply a biological event that comes about in temporal stages of decomposition, or is it a social event defined through cultures, practices, and commemorations? In other words, when exactly is death? Taken together, these contributions explore how death emerges in a series of stages that are uncertain, paradoxical, and socially contested.   

Details

Published by: Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date: 2020-11-13

Format: Paperback

ISBN-13: 9781349844739

DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-58328-4

Dimensions: 210cm x148cm

Pages: 167