Trouble with Death - (Death and Culture) by Finn Bowring (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Are we accepting of death, or in denial of it? What insights can we gain from the ways death has been imagined, theorized, and organized throughout Western social and intellectual history that might help us respond meaningfully to the climate emergency?

This interdisciplinary study begins with the role of tragedy in Greek antiquity and examines European attitudes toward death, especially their entanglement with colonial atrocities and politically organized killings.

Drawing on the work of philosophers, sociologists, historians, and psychoanalysts, this is a resounding call to confront our responsibility for the lives of others--and the future of life itself--amid the existential threats of the Anthropocene.

Review Quotes

"This truly intellectual tour d'horizon of Western theories about death challenges our conventional understanding of mortality and proposes human vulnerability as the key to caring for lives other than our own." Carlo Leget, University of Humanistic Studies

"This book invites us to reconsider everything: our perceptions of life, our attitudes towards mortality, our role in shaping humanity's future. It is a poignant exploration of all fundamental questions that define our existence." Adela Toplean, University of Bucharest

About the Author

Finn Bowring is Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University.