Last Words: Variations on a Theme in Cultural History [NOOK Book]

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Overview

Whether Goethe actually cried "More light!" on his deathbed, or whether Conrad Hilton checked out of this world after uttering "Leave the shower curtain on the inside of the tub," last words, regardless of authenticity, have long captured the imagination of Western society. In this playfully serious investigation based on factual accounts, anecdotes, literary works, and films, Karl Guthke explores the cultural importance of those words spoken at the border between this world and the next. The exit lines of both ...
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Last Words: Variations on a Theme in Cultural History

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Overview

Whether Goethe actually cried "More light!" on his deathbed, or whether Conrad Hilton checked out of this world after uttering "Leave the shower curtain on the inside of the tub," last words, regardless of authenticity, have long captured the imagination of Western society. In this playfully serious investigation based on factual accounts, anecdotes, literary works, and films, Karl Guthke explores the cultural importance of those words spoken at the border between this world and the next. The exit lines of both famous and ordinary people embody for us a sense of drama and truthfulness and reveal much about our thoughts on living and dying. Why this interest in last words? Presenting statements from such figures as Socrates, Nathan Hale, Marie Antoinette, and Oscar Wilde ("I am dying as I have lived, beyond my means"), Guthke examines our fascination in terms of our need for closure, our desire for immortality, and our attraction to the mystique of death scenes. The author considers both authentic and invented final statements as he looks at the formation of symbols and legends and their function in our culture. Last words, handed down from generation to generation like cultural heirlooms, have a good chance of surviving in our collective memory. They are shown to epitomize a life, convey a sense of irony, or play to an audience, as in the case of the assassinated Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, who is said to have died imploring journalists: "Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something."
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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
This densely written study by a German academic deals with the sociological importance of the last words uttered by the dying. Rather than a compilation, Guthke ( B. Traven: The Life Behind the Legends ) provides a historical perspective on last words in Western society, noting that, in earlier times, it was thought that by verbalizing an appropriate religious sentiment, dying persons might guarantee their entrance into heaven or at least protect themselves from eternal hell fire. A cultural mythology surrounds last words such as Goethe's ``More light'' and Gertrude Stein's ``In that case what is the question?,'' which are handed down through the generations but are not always authenticated. Guthke offers his thoughts on fictionalized last words in literature as well as an evaluation of published anthologies of last words. Acknowledging that his subject is his personal passion, he has written a scholarly treatise of use primarily to cultural historians. (Dec.)
Library Journal
The nature of the last words of the dying are explained by Guthke as examples of cultural artifacts and the continuing secularization of society. Using folklore, literature, and biography, he discusses the concept of the final insight as a historic construct that was developed in antiquity and still present in the modern world. The words of saints and sinners, the famous and the unknown, along with phrases, proverbs, and maxims, are here included in the whole genre of last words. Guthke has interesting things to say about the authenticity of last words, Shakespeare's death scenes, interpretations of Goethe's last words, and the literature of last-word collections. But while it makes for fun reading despite the topic, this is still a highly specialized work. Recommended for large literature and academic libraries.-- Gene Shaw, NYPL
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781400820719
  • Publisher: Princeton University Press
  • Publication date: 10/30/1992
  • Sold by: Barnes & Noble
  • Format: eBook
  • Pages: 268
  • File size: 509 KB

Table of Contents



Preface


A Note on the English Version



1

Last Words in Everyday Culture: Forms and Meaning of a Convention in Life and Letters

3

2

Why the Interest in Last Words?: Completion, Immortality, Mystique

48

3

Pork-Pie or Fatherland: Authentic or Ben Trovato?: The Last Words as Artifact and "Inherited Mythology"

67

4

Guidance, Entertainment, and Frisson: Anthologies of Last Words

98

5

An Intellectual History of Last Words?: Landmarks in Uncharted Terrain

155



Notes

191



Select Bibliography

229



Index

236

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