Imaginations of Death and the Beyond in India and Europe

This volume explores current images of afterlife/afterdeath and the presence of the dead in the imaginations of the living in Indian and European traditions. Specifically, it focuses on the deepest and most fundamental uncertainty of human existence---the awareness of human mortality, on which depends any assignment of meaning to earthly existence as also to notions of worldly and otherworldly salvation. This central idea is addressed in the literature, arts, audiovisual media and other cultural artefacts of the two traditions. The chapters are based on two main assumptions: First, that one cannot report on the direct experience of death; so it is only possible to speak allegorically of it. Second, in contemporary Western societies, marked by structural atheism, people look at literature, the arts and mass media to study their depiction and reading of traditionally religious questions of disease, death and the Beyond. This is in contrast to Asian civilizations whose preoccupation with death and Beyond is persistent and perhaps central to the civilizations’ highest thought. The chapters cover a wide spectrum of disciplinary approaches, from psychoanalysis to religious, anthropological, literary and film studies, from sociology and philosophy to art history, and address issues of unsettling power: comforting illusions of afterlife; the relations between afterlife and fertility; visions of technological immortalization of mankind; the problem of thinking about death after the “death of God”; socialist utopias of bodily immortality; fear of Hell and punishment; different concepts in relating the living and the dead; near-death experiences; and cultural practices of spiritualism, occultism and suicide. This volume explores current images of afterlife/afterdeath and the presence of the dead in the imaginations of the living in Indian and Western traditions. Specifically, it focuses on the deepest and most fundamental uncertainty of human existence--the awareness of human mortality, on which depends any assignment of meaning to earthly existence as also to notions of worldly and otherworldly salvation. This central idea is addressed in the literature, arts, audiovisual media and other cultural artefacts of the two traditions. The chapters are based on two main assumptions : First, that one cannot report on the direct experience of death; so it is only possible to speak allegorically of it. Second, in contemporary Western societies, marked by structural atheism, people look at literature, the arts and mass media to study their depiction and reading of traditionally religious questions of disease, death and the Beyond. This is in contrast to Asian civilizations whose preoccupation with death and Beyond is persistent and perhaps central to the civilizations' highest thought. The chapters cover a wide spectrum of disciplinary approaches, from psychoanalysis to religious, anthropological, literary and film studies, from sociology and philosophy to art history, and address issues of unsettling power : comforting illusions of afterlife; the relations between afterlife and fertility; visions of technological immortalization of mankind; the problem of thinking about death after the "death of God"; socialist utopias of bodily immortality; fear of Hell and punishment; different concepts in relating the living and the dead; near-death experiences; and cultural practices of spiritualism, occultism and suicide Moksha : On The Hindu Quest For Immortality / Sudhir Kakar -- Threshold Images Between Life And Death In Western Literature And Film / G�unter Blamberger -- Illusions Of Immortality / Jonardon Ganeri -- The Quest For Immortality As A Technical Problem : The Idea Of Cybergnosis And The Visions Of Posthumanism / Oliver Kr�uger -- From Biological To Moral Immortality : The Utopian Dimensions Of Socialist Work Ethics / Anja Kirsch -- The Dead, Dying, And Post-death : Visual Exemplars And Iconographic Devices / Naman P. Ahuja -- Dream, Death, And Death Within A Dream / Arindam Chakrabarti -- The Afterworld As A Site Of Punishment : Imagining Hell In European Literature And Art / Friedrich Vollhardt -- The Afterlife Of The Dead In This World : Ghosts, Art, And Poetry In German Modernism / Georg Braungart -- Death-x-pulse : A Hermeneutics For The Panoramic Life Review In Near-death Experiences / Jens Schlieter -- Paths To Nirvana? : Hunger As Practice Of Suicide / Thomas Macho -- Afterlife And Fertility In V Aranasi / Katharina Kakar. G�unter Blamberger, Sudhir Kakar, Editors. All The Contributions In This Volume Were First Given As Talks At The International Conference 'figurations Of Afterlife/afterdeath' In New Delhi In February 2014.-- Acknowldegements Page. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Annotation;1. Moksha: On the Hindu Quest for Immortality Sudhir Kakar.- 2. Threshold-Images between Life and Death in Western Literature and Film Günter Blamberger -- 3. Illusions of Immortality Jonardon Ganeri -- 4. The quest for immortality as a technical problem. The idea of Cybergnosis and the visions of posthumanism Oliver Krüger -- 5. From biological to moral immortality: The transformation of the working class hero in communism Anja Kirsch -- 6. Images of Death and the Afterlife in India Naman Ahuja -- 7. Dream, Death and Death within a Dream Arindam Chakrabarti -- 8. The Afterworld as a Site of Punishment. Imagining Hell in European Literature Friedrich Vollhardt -- 9. The Afterlife of the Dead in this World: Ghosts, Art, and Poetry in German Modernism Georg Braungart -- 10.?Death-x-pulse?: A Hermeneutics for Near-Death-Experiences Jens Schlieter -- 11. Paths to Nirvana? Hunger as Practice of Suicide Thomas Macho -- 12. Afterlife and Fertility in Varanasi Katharina Poggendorf-Kakar. Annotation This volume explores current images of afterlife/afterdeath and the presence of the dead in the imaginations of the living in Indian and European traditions. Specifically, it focuses on the deepest and most fundamental uncertainty of human existence - the awareness of human mortality, on which depends any assignment of meaning to earthly existence as also to notions of worldly and otherworldly salvation. This central idea is addressed in the literature, arts, audiovisual media and other cultural artefacts of the two traditions