New Philosopher – July 2019

NewPhilosopher

movedthroughthestages“one’sown
death”,“deathoftheself ”,“thydeath/
deathoftheother”,andthenontothe
present,which hetermed“forbidden”
or“invisibledeath”.
When Aries described the me-
dieval approach of “tamed death”,
ratherthanreferringtothealarming
frequency of the death of children,
he meant thecommunality andthe
openness of dying anddeath in so-
ciety. The deathbed was in the
home,withthedyingsurrounded
by family and the local com-
munity. As for the accompany-
ing visual culture, just think of
allthosepicturesofthedancing
skeletons in the memento mori
woodcuts, each one a reminder
thatdeathwaseverpresent.
In the20th century,by con-
trast,deathwaspushedoutofsight.In
part, this was a tremendous achieve-
ment. The positive advances in public
heath and medical science helped to
remove the dominion of death over
everyday life. As the average life ex-
pectancy began to rise, lives were
transformed for the better. In 1899, an
article in the periodical Fortnightly Re-
view cheered that “the practical disap-
pearance of the thought of death as an
influence bearing directly upon life”. It
continued that “the fear of death is be-
ing replaced by the joy of life... full life
here and now is the demand”.
But other factors contributed to
making death taboo, including the
questioning of theological and reli-
gious frameworks and the breakdown
of traditional communities. The shel-
ter of frameworks of meaning weak-
ened, as did communal support in
the face of death. People were left to
face death and mourn in isolation,
as if it was something about which
they should be embarrassed. Writing
in the 1950s, in an essay called The
Pornography of Death, the British so-

ciologistGeoffreyGorerarguedthat

death hadbecometo the 20thcen-

tury what sex was to the 19thcen-

tury,andlikenedmourningto some

unspeakable sort of masturbation,

which was kept private.As sex be-

came prominent,death hadbecome

shroudedinprudery.

Are we now witnessing the end

of that silence and the breaking of

thedeathtaboo?Inthepast 40 years

demonstrable interest in death has

increased; in academia – in the me-

dia and in popular culture – which

suggests a society openly fascinated

with aspects of death, at least, rath-

er than one that denies it. Beyond

Büchel’s Barca Nostra, it was visible in

Damien Hirst’s £50 million diamond-

studded platinum skull, For the Love

of God, and in one of the most popular

exhibitions that Wellcome Collection

in London has ever held, the 2008 ex-

hibition Life Before Death: 24 sets of

photographs of people with a termi-

nal illness taken before and after their

death by the photographer Walter

Schels and his partner Beate Lakotta.

On TV screens, in newspapers,

and on the internet, images of death

are all around us, be it aid workers

and journalists beheaded by terror-

ists or drowned Syrian refugees lying

face-down on the beach of Bodrum.

There is an ever-expanding public

interest with celebrity deaths, from

the televised transmissions of the

funerals of Princess Diana to that

of Nelson Mandela, Michael Jack-

son, and Whitney Houston. When

the famous die, there is a rush to

display condolences and expres-

sions of emotion online,  as if their

deaths have become public property.

And if  someone in the public spot-

light dies with any attempt at privacy,

critical voices express disgruntlement

• asense that even though they may
  have been strangers to them, they were
  stillentitled to know. Witness the re-
  action when David Bowie died on
  10 January 2016, days after turn-
  ing 69, having kept the knowledge
  of his liver cancer from the world.
  Many were upset by that act of
  secrecy, surprised and even dis-
  mayed that he had neither writ-
  ten nor talked fulsomely about
  it.  In death, as in life, Bowie was
  something of an outlier: silent in
  a world of newspaper cancer columns
  and blogs about dying.  
  But although we seem to be see-
  ing the disappearance of the death
  taboo and the emergence of a kind
  of publicity of dying, actual death


• our own deaths – is still kept at a
  distance. When we lose loved ones
  today, it remains a private experience,
  one difficult to discuss in public life.
  In the 21st century, though there are
  multiple ways to grieve and plenty of
  talking therapy, this has not created a
  social ritual that can provide the nec-
  essary solace and establish recognised
  ways of marking a loved one’s death
  in public. 
  Death has been turned into a spec-
  tacle. But media and artistic represen-
  tations of actual or fictitious death are
  voyeuristic and empty without the
  meaningful (often religiously ground-
  ed, but not necessarily so) frameworks
  of meaning that previously provided
  a shelter. Instead of exhibiting death,
  we need to confront together the ex-
  istential questions posed by the finite
  nature of life.

When we lose loved

ones, it remains a

privatised experi-

ence, one difficult to

discuss in public life.

Keeping death at a distance