Course
Course 7.5 credits • SASH90
MEMENTO MORI! Remember that you will die. This is a course for you who want to discuss, reflect and learn more about perspectives of and practices around dying, death and mourning in contemporary society.
Teaching – spring semester 2021
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to affect our education and most of the teaching must take place completely digitally until further notice. Pay attention to the information in the schedule and/or in Canvas – the information is continuously adjusted based on current decisions and recommendations.
Death is the single most democratic thing in existence. Sooner or later, everyone dies. Still, death is one of the greatest mysteries known to humanity. This course introduces the field of death studies, covering rhetorical, social and cultural aspects of death and dying. Within the course you will learn about how death is understood in western contemporary society by looking at narratives, practices and institutions of dying, death and mourning.
The course content.
The course focuses on discussions of different types of rhetorical and cultural practices, institutions and rituals of death and dying in contemporary society. We discuss contexts of medial as well as cultural and social conditions for the practices, institutions and rituals of death
Within the course you will learn key theoretical perspectives on death in late modernity, historical developments in the cultural views, practices and institutions of death. You’ll also be working different ethical issues of institutions and representations of death and dying
In workshops, seminars and lectures you analyse and discuss literary and media representations of death and dying. We also work with media representations and social practices while taking into account relevant scientific, cultural and social aspects of death.
Some topics that will be covered during the course
• Media representations of death, risk and notable deaths
• The end of life and the social death
• the hospice movement
• Debates on palliative care and euthanasia
• The rhetoric of the good death
• Personal narratives of disease and dying
• Rituals of burial and remembrance
• The gentle art of Swedish death cleaning
• The breakdown of protocols of death during the Covid19 pandemic
After the course
You will be well versed in how to think about death as a cultural and social practice. Whether you are working in a death profession, have an academic interest in death as a cultural phenomenon or just want to learn more of different perspectives regarding end of life, you’ll be suited with theories and reflections on how to approach death.
Study period:
spring semester 2021
Type of education:
only online
Type of studies:
part time, 50 %,
distance course
Study period:
2021-03-24 – 2021-06-05
Language of instruction:
English
Application code:
LU-75961
Eligibility:
General requirements for university studies in Sweden
Introductory meeting: Friday, 26 March at 10.15 – 12.15
Teachers:
Katarina Bernhardsson,
Tommy Bruhn,
Fredrik Ekengren