The Final Curtain: State Funerals and the Theatre of Power

Első borító
Rodopi, 1999 - 252 oldal
Death is the one subject about which our culture is still reticent. Consequently many ceremonies about death are not examined in an open, enquiring and direct way. The state funeral, that large, public, ritualized statement about death is accepted in our society, while its deeper significances remain unexamined because it is seen as something of an historical curiosity, a survival from an earlier age associated with the traditions of that society. This well-illustrated study of a number of state funerals - of the Medicis and the Habsburgs in the Renaissance, of the Duke of Albemarle in the seventeenth century, of the Duke of Wellington and Abraham Lincoln in the nineteenth century, and of President Kennedy and Diana, Princess of Wales in the twentieth century - and the mythical structures and traditions they represent, examines two aspects in particular: the strongly political undertones of the public statements, and the theatrical elements of the public ritual.

Részletek a könyvből

Kiválasztott oldalak

Tartalomjegyzék

About Myth
9
Political Théâtre Macabre
45
The Impenetrable Duke
71
The Duke of Wellingtons
99
Uncle Sams Dead Democratic Ritual
131
The Apotheosis of the Queen of Hearts
196
Epilogue
221
Candles and their Standards in the
232
Index
244
Copyright

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Gyakori szavak és kifejezések

Népszerű szakaszok

27. oldal - ... the work of art. This is a symptomatic process whose significance points beyond the realm of art. One might generalize by saying: the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition. By making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence.
108. oldal - In spite of some foibles and faults, he was, beyond all doubt, a very great man — the only great man of the present time — and comparable, in point of greatness, to the most eminent of those who have lived before him.
73. oldal - There be, that tell me, that there is a certain cunning fellow in Scotland, called George Monk, who is said to lie in wait there to introduce Charles Stuart: I pray you use your diligence to apprehend him, and send him up to me.
173. oldal - He puts one hand on the Bible and raises the other hand to God as he takes the oath. And if he breaks his oath, he is not only committing a crime against the Constitution, for which the Constitution can impeach him — and should impeach him — but he is committing a sin against God.

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