Man against death: Identity, language, technology

Abstract

The article is a review of the book by D. Davies Death, Ritual, and Belief: The Rhetoric of Funerary Rites (Moscow: NLO, 2022. 480 p.). The author notes the growing interest of society in the phenomenon of death and makes an attempt to systematize the key aspects of this phenomenon: from funeral rites in various cultures to near-death experiences and theories of grief. In the review, the emphasis is placed on two main ideas of the book: how words and rituals influence our dealing with death and how the phenomenon of death affects our identity. The review identifies both the strengths of the book and those aspects that require a further study, such as the impact of technology on society’s perception of death (contemporary interdisciplinary studies called ‘digital death studies’).