This Handbook traces the history of the changing notion of what it means to die and examines the many constructions of afterlife in literature, text, ritual, and material culture throughout time. The Routledge Handbook of Death and the Afterlife is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems, and debates in this exciting subject. Comprising twenty-nine chapters by a team of international contributors, the Handbook is divided into three parts and covers the following important themes:

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• The study of dying, death, and grief
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• Disposal of the dead: past, present, and future
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• Representations of death: narratives and rhetoric
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• Youth meets death: a juxtaposition
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• Questionable deaths and afterlives: suicide, ghosts, and avatars
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• Material corpses and imagined afterlives around the world
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Within these sections, central issues, debates, and problems are examined, including: the world of death and dying from various cultural viewpoints and timeframes, cultural and social constructions of the definition of death, disposal practices, and views of the afterlife.

The Routledge Handbook of Death and the Afterlife is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies, philosophy, anthropology, and sociology.

About the Author

Candi K. Cann is an Associate Professor of Religion in the Honors College at Baylor University, USA.

Reviews

"A veritable feast of insights on a vast range of intriguing topics related to death and dying, this Handbook takes up issues of the afterlife, grief, corpses, ghosts, revenant pets, and much more, from diverse cultural perspectives and time periods."

-Karma Lekshe Tsomo, University of San Diego, USA

"The Routledge Handbook of Death and the Afterlife is largely a work by authors with expertise in religious studies, anthropology, sociology, psychology, history, medicine, architecture, and death studies (thanatology). It is therefore interdisciplinary (or multi-disciplinary) in nature.
[...]While the contributors range from seasoned experts in their fields to graduate students working on their doctoral dissertations, all the chapters are of good quality and written so that they may benefit academics while being accessible to upper-level undergraduates."

-Charles Taliaferro, Saint Olaf College, Religious Studies Review

Book Information
ISBN 9780367580643
Author Candi K. Cann
Format Paperback
Page Count 400
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g