Life Writing and Death

A day of explorations hosted by the Centre for Life-Writing Research

Keynote speaker: Dr. Ruth Richardson

Mortality is one of the few certainties in life, and the one thing we all have in common. Its presence may be felt in many ways and in many forms of life writing across a wide range of fields. How does the representation of death continue to haunt our perceptions of life, in texts, online, in artworks, in material culture, in rituals and performances? What can we learn from the way death has been represented in the past?  What can we hear by listening to the dead? Who speaks up for the dead? Who speaks of the dead- and how, and why?

In a day of explorations of the vital role death plays in the writing of life, a skilled group of artists and academics, most of whom work with the subject on a daily basis, will come together to share lively dialogues with the dead. We will be reflecting on subjects including anatomy, ashes, churchyards, cemeteries, graves, shrines, memorials and monuments, obituaries, burial and post mortem records, architecture and mourning artefacts.

Click here for the provisional programme