S.Yu. Malysheva
Kazan Federal University, Kazan, 420008 Russia
E-mail: Svetlana.Malycheva@kpfu.ru
Received November 22, 2016
Full text PDF
Abstract
The paper is devoted to the problem of death as a separate subject of socio-humanitarian studies in the West during the second half of the 20th century.
In the recent decades, thanatological aspects have gained increasing attention in socio-cultural studies. In this regard, the aim of this paper, which seems to be relevant to the field, is to identify the specifics of investigating the problem of death in socio-humanitarian studies using historiographical analysis. The obtained results show that death studies, which were mainly the research on death and funerary rites, appeared in the first half of the 20th century due to anthropologists' efforts. However, a new impetus was given to the research in the middle of the 1950s. The “repression of death” in modern society caused intense debate which triggered the research interest in death on the whole and, in particular, its phenomenon in modern developed countries. Consequently, a number of publications appeared and such of disciplines as death psychology, sociology of death and dying, and historical thanatology were developed. By the turn of the centuries, the intensification of death studies in various disciplines contributed to the transformation of the overall problem of death within the scope of a broad interdisciplinary cooperation. It is important to understand these processes in order to unlock the cognitive potential of socio-humanitarian thanatological studies, as well as to understand the role of their results in historical, cultural, and social research.
Keywords: history, historiography, death studies, historical thanatology, death psychology, sociology of death and dying
Acknowledgments. The study is part of the author's research within the framework of the project “The Red Thanatos: The History and Culture of Death in Soviet Russia (1917–1991)” sponsored by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation (Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, Projekt “Der rote Thanatos: Geschichte und Kultur des Todes in Sowjetrussland (1917–1991)”) / Az.20.15.0.045).
References
- Gorer G. The Pornography of death. Encounter, 1955, Oct., pp. 49–52.
- Sigmund F. Jenseits des Lustprinzips. Leipzig, Wien, Zürich, Int. Psychoanal. Verlag, 1920. 64 S. (In German)
- Aries Ph. L'Homme devant la mort. Paris, Seuil, 1977. 155 p. (In French)
- Leaney J. Death, Ritual and Bereavement. Ashes to Ashes: Cremation and the Celebration of Death in Nineteenth Century. Houlbrooke R. (Ed.). London, New York, Routledge, 1989, pp. 118–135.
- Parsons T., Fox R.C., Lidz V.M. Death in American Experience. The “Gift of Life” and Its Reciprocation. Mack A. (Ed.). New York, Schocken, 1973, pp. 1–49.
- Feldmann K. Sterben und Tod: Sozialwissenschaftliche Theorien und Forschungsergebnisse. Opladen, Leske und Budrich, 1997. 122 S. (In German)
- Hertz R. Contribution à l'étude sur la représentation collective de la mort. Année sociologique, 1907, T. 10, p. 48–137. (In French)
- Gennep A., van. Les rites de passage: étude systématique des rites de la porte et du seuil, de l'hospitalité, de l'adoption, de la grossesse et de l'accouchement, de la naissance, de l'enfance, de la puberté, de l'initiation, de l'ordination, du couronnement, des fiançailles et du mariage, des funérailles, des saisons, etc. Paris, E. Nourry, 1909. 146 p. (In Russian)
- Huntington R., Metcalf P. Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual. Cambridge, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1979. 230 p.
- Kübler-Ross E. On Death and Dying. London, Routledge, 1969. 272 p.
- Kübler-Ross E. Questions and Answers on Death and Dying. New York, Simon & Schuster, 1972. 179 p.
- Zinn K.G. Kanonen und Pest: über die Ursprünge der Neuzeit im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert. Opladen, Westdeutsch. Verlag, 1989. 384 S. (In German)
- Becker U., Feldmann K., Johannsen F. Sterben und Tod in Europa. Feldmann K. Einleitung. Neukirchen, Neukirchener Verlag, 1997, S. 94–107. (In German)
- Vovelle M., Vovelle G. Vision de la mort et de l'au-delà en Provence: d'après les autels des âmes du purgatoire XVe – XXe siècles. Paris, Colin, 1970. 99 p. (In French)
- Vovelle M. Piètè baroque et dèchristianisation en Provence au XVIIIe siècle: Les attitudes devant la mort d'après les clauses des testaments. Paris, Plon, 1973. 697 p. (In French)
- Vovelle M. Mourir autrefois: attitudes collectives devant la mort aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Paris, Gallimard, Julliard, 1974. 251 p. (In French)
- Chaunu P. La mort a Paris: XVIe, XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Paris, Fayard, 1978. 543 p. (In French)
- Aries Ph. Western Attitudes toward death: From the Middle Ages to the Present. Baltimore, J. Hopkins Univ. Press, 1974. 122 p.
- Davies D. Death, Ritual and Belief: The Rhetoric of Funerary Rites. London, Cassell, 1997. 216 p.
- Davies D. A Brief History of Death. Malden, Mass., Blackwell Publ., 2005. 184 p.
- Fischer M. Ein Sarg nur und ein Leichenkleid: Sterben und Tod im 19. Jahrhundert. Zur Kultur und Frömmigkeitsgeschichte des Katholizismus in Südwestdeutschland. Paderborn, München, Wien, Zürich, Schöningh, 2004. 437 S. (In German)
- Fischer N. “Das Herzchen, das hier liegt, das ist sein Leben los”: historische Friedhöfe in Deutschland. Hamburg, Verlag am Galgenberg, 1992. 159 S. (In German)
- Fischer N. Vom Gottesacker zum Krematorium: eine Sozialgeschichte der Friedhöfe in Deutschland seit dem XVIII. Jahrhundert. Köln, Böhlau, 1996. 256 S. (In German)
- Steindorff L. Memoria in Altrussland: Untersuchungen zu den Formen christlicher Totensorge. Stuttgart, Steiner, 1994. 294 S. (In German)
- Merridale C. Night of Stone. Death and Memory in Russia. London, Granta, 2000. 495 p.
- Totengedenken und Trauerkultur: Geschichte und Zukunft des Umgangs mit Verstorbenen. Herzog M. (Hrsg.). Stuttgart, Berlin, Köln, Kohlhammer, 2001. 260 S. (In German)
- Assmann J., Trauzettel R. Tod, Jenseits und Identität: Perspektiven einer kulturwissenschaftlichen Thanatologie. Freiburg, München, Alber, 2002. 831 S. (In German)
- Nekropolis: der Friedhof als Ort der Toten und der Lebenden. Fischer N., Herzog M. (Hrsg.). Stuttgart, Kohlhammer, 2005. 277 S. (In German)
- Kultur des Todes: Interdisziplinäre Beiträge zur Sepulkralkultur aus dem Arbeitskreis selbstständiger Kulturinstitute. Neumann. W. (Hrsg.). Kassel, Arbeitsgem. Friedhof und Denkmal, 2007. 143 S. (In German)
- Das “letzte Hemd”: Zur Konstruktion von Tod und Geschlecht in der materiellen und visuellen Kultur. Ellwanger K. (Hrsg.). Bielefeld, Transcript-Verlag, 2010. 356 S. (In German)
For citation: Malysheva S.Yu. The problem of death in socio-humanitarian studies during the second half of the 20th century. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2017, vol. 159, no. 4, pp. 1043–1053. (In Russian)
![](http://kpfu.ru/docs/F46869432187/img608337246.jpg)
The content is available under the license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.