circulating+corpses

=Burial, Interrupted: Circulating Corpses and the Unquiet Body Politic=

Proposed interdisciplinary symposium

Late October 2009 //(A Cultural Production "Halloween" Event)//

//Draft description://

In diverse human societies, burial and related mortuary processes have long been critical in the making of place, the assertion of lineage, and the reconstitution of social order. Conversely, unexpected acts of redirecting bodily remains carry the potential to subvert normative schemes of place and temporal sequence or to expose hidden contradictions in the social order. This symposium explores the political and cultural implications of circulating human remains, under conditions both of secrecy and of public scrutiny. When does the revelation of relocated remains strengthen, or undermine, assertions of legitimacy and sovereignty? We explore, in turn, playful, literary, and artistic engagements with spectacles of bodily remains out of place. Cases to be considered include nineteenth century grave-robbing, systematic violations of African-American cemeteries in the American South, representations of the Middle Passage, the enduring legacies of coerced mass civilian suicides in the Pacific War, and the popular meanings of Halloween in contemporary North American culture.

Organizers: Mark Auslander & David Sherman