The vitality of the dead in medieval cultures

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article provides an overview of the current state of research into the dead and undead in the European Middle Ages. Looking at the theoretical frameworks that underpin modern scholarship on the topic, as well the key publications that have steered academic investigations on death and dying into exciting new arenas, this introduction highlights the myriad ways in which the traumas of death were conceptualised in pre-modern textual traditions.