Afterlives: the return of the dead in the Middle Ages

Simultaneously real and unreal, the dead are people, yet they are not. The society of medieval Europe developed a rich set of imaginative traditions about death and the afterlife, using the dead as a point of entry for thinking about the self, regeneration, and loss. These macabre preoccupations are evident in the widespread popularity of stories about the returned dead, who interacted with the living both as disembodied spirits and as living corpses or revenants. This book explores this extraordinary phenomenon of the living's relationship with the dead in Europe during the five hundred years after the year 1000

Imagining mortality -- Mors, a critical biography -- Diagnosing death -- Corporeal revenants -- Revenants, resurrection, and burnt sacrifice -- The hellequin and the burning ones -- Flesh and bone: the semiotics of mortality -- The disembodied dead -- Psychopomps, oracles, and spirit mediums -- Spectral possession

Imagining mortality -- Mors, a critical biography -- Diagnosing death -- Corporeal revenants -- Revenants, resurrection, and burnt sacrifice -- The hellequin and the burning ones -- Flesh and bone: the semiotics of mortality -- The disembodied dead -- Psychopomps, oracles, and spirit mediums -- Spectral possession