Phantasmion, or the Confessions of a Female Opium Eater

2020 ◽  
pp. 275-296
Author(s):  
Donelle Ruwe
Keyword(s):  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Samuel Taylor Coleridge ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Maternal Body ◽  
Physical Body ◽  
Sand Trap ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Opium Use

This chapter analyzes the female opium narrative through a comparison of Sara Coleridge’s children’s novel Phantasmion and the texts of De Quincey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Phantasmion, the first fairy tale novel in English, explores the fluidity of the physical body through the travails of its hero, Prince Phantasmion. He metamorphoses into insects, falls into vision states, and finally comes into his own in a climactic scene in which he carries the dead body of his mother out of a sand trap. Part insect narrative, part opium text, and part guilt-ridden maternal autobiography, Phantasmion exemplifies Teresa Brennan’s concepts of entrainment and the transmission of affect. This essay begins with a discussion of the maternal body and opium use, with a focus on Coleridge’s breastfeeding diaries and her verse for children. The second section links the novel’s use of insect poetics and physical metamorphoses to Jane Bennett’s ideas about the vibrancy of matter. The concluding section explores the autobiographical elements of Phantasmion as well as its use of a particular opium involute that was inspired by Martin Dobrizhoffer’s account of his time among the Guarani people of Paraguay. As Coleridge repeats this involute throughout her text, the hero Phantasmion gradually comes to understand his own human frailty.

“Our Dead are the Ultimate Teachers of Life”. The Corpse as an Inter-mediator of Transcendence

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-240
Author(s):  
Antje Kahl
Keyword(s):  
Death And Dying ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Spiritual Experiences ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Funeral Directors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Funeral Director ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Relationship

Today in Germany, religion and the churches forfeit their sovereignty of interpretation and ritual concerning death and dying. The funeral director is the first point of contact when death occurs. Therefore he or she is able to influence the relationship between the living and the dead. In the course of this development, the dead body, often referred to as dirty and dangerous, is being sanitized by funeral directors. Funeral directors credit the dead body with a certain quality; they claim that facing the dead may lead to religious or spiritual experiences, and therefore they encourage the public viewing of the dead – a practice which was, and still is not very common in Germany. The new connotation of the dead body is an example for the dislimitation of religion in modern society. The religious framing of death-related practises no longer exclusively belongs to traditional religious institutions and actors, but can take place in commercial business companies as well.

scholarly journals XXXI. A short account of Dr. Maty's illness, and of the appearances in the dead body, which was examined on the 3d of July, 1776, the day after his decease

1777 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 608-613 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Dead Body ◽  
Short Account ◽  
The Dead ◽  
As If

About two weeks before he died, he was taken with a fit of violent oppressive pain, just above the pit of the stomach, which made him feel as if he was very near dying. He was bled, and gradually recovered; yet so imperfectly, that any motion of his body, or any pressure upon that part with the point of a finger, instantly brought on such oppressive pain, that he was convinced the least addition to what he had several times felt, must have put an end to his life. He had an idea that there might be a collection of matter behind the sternum, which might be discharge by some chirurgical operation.

scholarly journals Dressing the dead body

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgitta Nordström
Keyword(s):  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Collaborative Project ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Mourning Process

My current research focuses on textiles and rites, especially woven textiles for funerals and moments of loss. What active role can a textile such as an infant-wrapping cloth or a funeral pall play in the mourning process? This article will describe the development and current questions that address 1) the infant-wrapping cloth – the textile that is used to dress, clothe, or cover the dead body with particular attention to the question of infant mortality and the material practices of care. 2) The funeral pall that is used at funerals, draped over the coffin or as a body cover at hospital viewing rooms. One example to be presented is Kortedalakrönika (‘The Chronicle of Kortedala’), a collaborative project, woven for a church in Gothenburg. My work is based in artistic practice but opens up several scientific and existential questions.

scholarly journals Resurrection, revenance, and exhumation: the problematics of the dead body in songs and laments

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 28-54
Author(s):  
Madis Arukask
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Field Trips ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Early Winter ◽  
Late Autumn ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Familiar Environment ◽  
Folk Tradition

Different types of folklore texts differ from each other by their function. We can distinguish between genres meant to be believed (like legend) and genres recognized in advance as fiction (fairy-tale). At the same time, textual fiction may also have served practical purposes—such as the telling of fairy-tales during the late autumn and early winter for purposes of fertility magic—as used to be the case in the Estonian folk tradition. There are folklore genres that have functioned, among other things, as an accompaniment, comment on, or support to rituals or practices being carried out—for instance, an incantation during a cure, or a lament in death-related procedures, when a person must be separated from his familiar environment. The same textual formulae fulfil different tasks in different genres, which means that they also carry a different meaning. The present paper considers some themes related to the bodily aspect of humanity in various genres of folklore, particularly in songs and laments, as well as in practices related to death and commemoration. As expected, the problems connected with the human body have in these genres undergone transformations of meaning, the understanding and interpretation of which may vary considerably. The mater­ial discussed in the article derives mainly from the Balto-Finnic and north Russian cultural area, partly from the author's own experience during his field trips.

scholarly journals The disorderly body: considerations of The Book of Numbers, 19 and ritual impurity after contact with a corpse

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 197-205
Author(s):  
Sandra Junker
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Human Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Living Body ◽  
The People ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Living Creature

This article deals with the idea of ritual bodily impurity after coming into contact with a corpse in the Hebrew Bible. The evanescence and impermanence of the human body testifies to the mortality of the human being. In that way, the human body symbolizes both life and death at the same time; both conditions are perceivable in it. In Judaism, the dead body is considered as ritually impure. Although, in this context it might be better to substitute the term ‘ritually damaged’ for ‘ritually impure’: ritual impurity does not refer to hygienic or moral impurity, but rather to an incapability of exercising—and living—religion. Ritual purity is considered as a prerequisite for the execution of ritual acts and obligations. The dead body depends on a sphere which causes the greatest uncertainty because it is not accessible for the living. According to Mary Douglas’s concepts, the dead body is considered ritually impure because it does not answer to the imagined order anymore, or rather because it cannot take part in this order anymore. This is impurity imagined as a kind of contagious illness, which is carried by the body. This article deals with the ritual of the red heifer in Numbers 19. Here we find the description of the preparation of a fluid that is to help clear the ritual impurity out of a living body after it has come into contact with a corpse. For the preparation of this fluid a living creature – a faultless red heifer – must be killed. According to the description, the people who are involved in the preparation of the fluid will be ritually impure until the end of the day. The ritual impurity acquired after coming into contact with a corpse continues as long as the ritual of the Red Heifer remains unexecuted, but at least for seven days. 

scholarly journals Bentuk-bentuk Petulangan Dalam Upacara Ngaben Ditinjau Dari Sudut Kesenirupaan Di Bali

2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
I Dewa Made Pastika
Keyword(s):  
Dead Body ◽  
Artistic Value ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Religious Meaning

The Art of sarcophagus has been known in Bali since ancient up to now in relationship with a cremation ceremony called “ Ngaben” or “ Pelebon”. Its function is as a plase for the dead body during cremation in order that the dead body is protected and its ash can be easily collected after the cremation Phylosophically, sarco- phagi whith are shape of animals have. a meaning of a pach into the heaven for the soul of the cremated body. Besides, if we view them from the art aspect, they hava special artistic velues and special beauty which become an important cultural asset to attract tourist who want to watch them. Ornaments of the sarcophagi generally used in Bali, are taken from animals such as lion, deer, akin of dragon, gedarba, tiger, and kinds of fish. The shaped sarcophagi are adorned with carved ornaments or with cutouts which are stuck on them and made from paper with various carving motif and coloured-catton thread for example: takep pala, takep piah, pengampad, badong, bottems cover ornament, fire tongue, “ gunala”, “karang guak”, “dure “. Ornaments carved in va- rious motif such as “patra punggel”, “patra sari”, mas-masan, “cra- cap”, patra cina “ and other “ kekarangan “. Comparison elements have important role on the beauty of sarcophagus work such as the comparison between the height and the length of the sarcophagus. Sarcophagi not only have special religious meaning, but olso they have high artistic value which should be developed in the future.

Attitude Toward Organ Donation Related to Personal Preferences for the Final Disposition of the Dead Body in Nursing Students in Southeast Spain

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 358-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Martínez-Alarcón ◽  
A. Ríos ◽  
A.I. López-Navas ◽  
A. Sáez-Acosta ◽  
G. Ramis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Students ◽  
Organ Donation ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Final Disposition ◽  
Southeast Spain
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