The Culture of DeathWestern culture has always been obsessed with death, but now death has taken on a new, anonymous form. The 20th Century saw the mass production of corpses through war and the triumph of technology over the human body. The new millennium has opened with global terrorism and the suspension of all human rights in far-flung prison camps. We live in an age of panic, when the fear of death at any time and in any place is present. And we live in an age of apathy towards both science and institutional politics, an age which has sanctioned the rise of techno-medical and political powers which can deny our control over our own bodies and lives and the lives of others. The Culture of Death explores this moment to analyse our exposure to death in modern culture. |
Contents
A New Time of Death? | 9 |
The Space of Death | 31 |
Politicising Death | 53 |
Copyright | |
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Agamben argues analysis artists Auschwitz Bacon Badiou banal Bataille Bataille's Baudrillard become bioethics biological existence biopolitics biopower body body without organs brain death celebration Chapter concentration camps concept contemporary critical culture of death dead death in modern death studies decision defined definition of death Deleuze democracy despite ethics example excluded experience explore exposed exposure to death extermination camps fact figure film Foucault Giorgio Agamben Holocaust Homo Sacer horror human images inclusive exclusion individual Jean Baudrillard Karen Ann Quinlan life-support living meaning of death medical power medicine modern art modern culture modern death Muselmann Muslim Nazi Nazism old power patient Peter Singer philosopher political identity politicisation power of death problem question racism refugee resistance result sacred sensation sexual simply Singer sovereign power sovereignty space of power suffering suggests survival taboo takes thanatopolitical transgressive death violence Virilio Western culture Zizek zone of indistinction