Death comes alive; technology and the re-conception of death

Argues that the US culture's current focus on death is tied to the current technological environment that has blurred the boundaries between life & death, allowing concerns with death to freely enter the realm of the living. Drawing on popular cultural discourses, it is shown that technolog...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science as culture 1997-01, Vol.6 (3), p.444-466
Main Authors: Cerulo, Karen A., Ruane, Janet M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Death
Death Attitudes
Popular Culture
Technological Change
Technology
United States of America
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Argues that the US culture's current focus on death is tied to the current technological environment that has blurred the boundaries between life & death, allowing concerns with death to freely enter the realm of the living. Drawing on popular cultural discourses, it is shown that technology has constructed a technological lifespace that represents a kind of bridge between life & death states & functions as a safety zone from which issues of death may be confronted. Further, technology is discussed as offering a new form of interaction, technosynchronicity, that seems to transport the dead to the empirical realm of the living. Thus, technology reconstructs death as a place to visit rather than as a final destination. It is concluded that, not only has technology increased the culture's attention to death, it also has increased attention to the relationship between the body & the self. 3 Illustrations, 69 References. D. M. Smith
ISSN:0950-5431
1470-1189
DOI:10.1080/09505439709526477