The Gender Of Death

An illustrated historical study of gendered personifications of death in Western art, literature, and culture.

In this illustrated historical survey of the image of death in art and literature Karl S. Guthke assesses the significance of the various personifications of death in different ages and cultures, as male or female, enemy or lover, friend or avenger, angel or devil. Guthke shows that such images are reflections of the life and cultures that produced them, and through them he offers astonishing new insights into the nature and perception of the Western self in its cultural, intellectual, and literary context.

Death, Gender and Ethnicity examines the ways in which gender and ethnicity shape the experiences of dying and bereavement, taking as its focus the diversity of ways through which the universal event of death is encountered. It brings together accounts of how these experiences are actually managed with analyses of a range of representations of dying and grieving in order to provide a more theoretical approach to the relationship between death, gender and ethnicity. Though death and dying have been an increasingly important focus for academics and clinicians over the last thirty years, much of this work provides little insight into the impact of gender and ethnicity on the experience. The result is often a universalising representation which fails to take account of the personally unique and culturally specific experiences associated with a death. Drawing on a range of detailed case studies, Death, Gender and Ethnicity develops a more sensitive theoretical approach which will be invaluable reading for students and practitioners in health studies, sociology, social work and medical anthropology.

Anthropologist, archaeologists, and art historians detail their approaches to studying gender in burial practices and in other mortuary contexts. They compare European and American traditions in this field, outline methods for analyzing gender in cultures of varying complexity and with different levels of documentation, and describe some of the successes of such efforts. Consideration is given to the relationships between gender, ideology, power, signification, and the interpretation of evidence. c. Book News Inc.

Gender, Supernatural Beings, and the Liminality of Death: Monstrous Males/Fatal Females examines representations of the supernatural dead to demonstrate shifts in the manifestation of gender. Including readings of East Asian detectives/cyborgs, Iranian vampires, and African zombies, among others, This collection offers a multi-faceted look at myth, legend, and popular culture representations of the gendered supernatural from a broad range of international contexts. The contributors show that, as creatures pass through the liminal space of death, their new supernatural forms challenge cultural conceptions of gender, masculinity, and femininity.

Considering the trope of woman/death, the eroticizing of death, and the ways in which the gendered subject is represented in dialogue with the processes of death, dying, and grief, James shows how representations of death in young adult literature are invariably associated with issues of sexuality, gender, and power.

This book draws on a range of critical approaches, including cultural anthropology, psychoanalytic theory, political justice theory, and feminist theory, to consider the ways that strategies of death denial and their compensatory consolations offer insight into the ethical, gender, and religious questions raised by Hawthorne's novels.

Death, Gender and Ethnicity examines the ways in which gender and ethnicity shape the experiences of dying and bereavement, taking as its focus the diversity of ways through which the universal event of death is encountered. It brings together accounts of how these experiences are actually managed with analyses of a range of representations of dying and grieving in order to provide a more theoretical approach to the relationship between death, gender and ethnicity. Though death and dying have been an increasingly important focus for academics and clinicians over the last thirty years, much of this work provides little insight into the impact of gender and ethnicity on the experience. The result is often a universalising representation which fails to take account of the personally unique and culturally specific experiences associated with a death. Drawing on a range of detailed case studies, Death, Gender and Ethnicity develops a more sensitive theoretical approach which will be invaluable reading for students and practitioners in health studies, sociology, social work and medical anthropology.