Zygmunt Bauman’s new book is a brilliant exploration, from a
sociological point of view, of the ‘taboo’ subject in modern
societies: death and dying. The book develops a new theory of the
ways in which human mortality is reacted to, and dealt with, in
social institutions and culture. The hypothesis explored in the
book is that the necessity of human beings to live with the
constant awareness of death accounts for crucial aspects of the
social organization of all known societies. Two different ‘life
strategies’ are distinguished in respect of reactions to mortality.
One, ‘the modern strategy’, deconstructs mortality by translating
the insoluble issue of death into many specific problems of health
and disease which are ‘soluble in principle’. The ‘post-modern
strategy’ is one of deconstructing immortality: life is transformed
into a constant rehearsal of ‘reversible death’, a substitution of
‘temporary disappearance’ for the irrevocable termination of life.
This profound and provocative book will appeal to a wide
audience. It will also be of particular interest to students and
professionals in the areas of sociology, anthropology, theology and
philosophy.
Table des matières
1. Living with Death.
2. Bidding for Immortality.
3. The Selfish Species.
4. Modernity, or Deconstructing Mortality.
5. Postmodernity, or Deconstructing Immortality.
Postscript: ‘To Die For…’ or Death and Morality.
About This Book.
References.
A propos de l’auteur
Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017) was Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the Universities of Leeds and Warsaw. He is the author of a number of other books including the extremely successful Modernity and the Holocaust (Polity, 1989) which won the 1989 European Amalfi Prize for Sociology and Social Theory, and Modernity and Ambivalence (Polity, 1991). He was also awarded the Theodor W. Adorno prize for 1998.
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