ABSTRACT
This book has been written within the context of developing social theories of the body.1 These are theories which have acknowledged the centrality of the body in the formation of social identity but have as yet to pay sufficient attention to the dying and dead body. While sociologies have re-mapped the body in social and cultural terms, marginalised, problematic bodies remain a more peripheral focus of theoretical interest. Here we are pressing for an analysis of bodies in crisis which are undergoing radical transformation during crucial phases of the life course-and in particular, for attention to be paid to the formation of identity throughout the process of dying, at the point of, and after death. We argue that these bodies are experienced, interpreted and located in different ways with regard to social and cultural practices which are central to the constitution of self and other.
