The Political Lives of Dead Bodies: Reburial and Postsocialist Change

by Katherine Verdery

Book Overview

Since 1989, scores of bodies across Eastern Europe have been exhumed and brought to rest in new gravesites. Katherine Verdery investigates why certain corpses--the bodies of revolutionary leaders, heroes, artists, and other luminaries, as well as more humble folk--have taken on a political life in the turbulent times following the end of Communist Party rule, and what roles they play in revising the past and reorienting the present. Enlivening and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0231112319
• ISBN13: 9780231112314
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.9" x 8.9"
• Age Range: 22 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A Lively, Readable Book

I'm surprised to read the two reviews above, obviously written by readers who missed the point. The book is full of lively, concrete detail written in extremely readable prose. (Anyone who finds this kind of writing difficult to read obviously hasn't read much in the social sciences lately. Go read something by Homi Babha or Judith Butler, sweethearts, and come back and tell me Verdery uses too much jargon!)I found the particular cases--particularly the one on Inochentie Micu--a remarkable window into understanding why the postcommunist transition hasn't worked out according to the blueprints of neoliberal planners. It says a remarkable amount about the hopes, fears, and passions of people in the region, none of which are taken into account by those who seek to apply bloodless ideal-typical models to a region with an often bloody history.