History of Death, Dying, and Grief: The Impact of Modern War

Catalog description

This class will examine the changing nature of death, dying and grief since the late 19th century by focusing on modern wars as instruments of change. As both the number of mortalities and the manner of death changed, so too did private and public ways of dealing with death. Societies around the world modified their understandings of death and created new ways of dealing with the dead, in body and in spirit, as wars became deadlier and dying assumed an increasingly unfamiliar shape. Some of the questions we will consider in this class include: -how is death represented in social memory during and after war? -the changing ways of dying – what is a “good” death and what is a “bad” death on the battlefield and at home? -how has the act of killing changed and how does it influence our understanding of death? -how mourning practices change, both in the private and public sphere, as a consequence of war -how do national commemorative practices interact with our private understandings of death and dying? -in what kinds of spaces do the living and the dead interact? -what elements of modern war foster these changes? Do all wars shape death and dying in the same way? What common features exist and what elements are culturally specific? Pre-requisites: Not open to first-year students. Fulfillment: Humanities 18-19 Topic Course.