Vol. 8 No. 2 (2019)

Thanatos 2/2019 contains six articles, an essay, and a book review. The first of the three articles in Finnish, by Visa Helenius, analyses the ancient Roman poet philosopher Lucretius’ views on the fear of death and compares them to modern views. Hanna Pohjola, in the second article, studies terminal illnesses and the experiences of impending death in (auto)biographical novels from the point of view of embodiment. In the third Finnish article, Iida Luukkonen studies the development of forensic methods in late 19th and early 20th century Finland through post-mortem reports while shedding light on the authority of district physicians in the judicial processes of uncertain deaths. Christina Sandberg, in her Swedish article, examines how power is realized within the discourse of death. The English abstracts for the articles in Finnish and Swedish can be found in the end of each piece.

The first of the two research articles written in English, written by Melissa Schilderink and Eric Venbrux, examines how an individual’s identity after death is narratively constructed in blog posts written by the dying. The second, by Anu A. Harju, analyses mediated commemoration and sharing solidarity symbols on Twitter after four terrorist attacks: Paris attacks in January and November 2015, Beirut in November 2015, and Christchurch in March 2019.

In addition to the research articles, the issue includes an essay by Devaleena Kundu and a book review by Saila Leskinen. Kundu’s essay discusses José Saramago’s novel Death at Intervals (2008) in the context of industrialization, urbanization, commercialization, and specifically medicalization of death. Saila Leskinen reviews Henna Mäkelin’s Kuolema. Kaikki mitä olet aina halunnut tietää(S&S, Helsinki, 2018) in Finnish.