Thinking Allowed

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Thinking Allowed: The Grave - Memorial Benches

The Grave - Memorial Benches

BBC Radio 4 - Thinking Allowed, The Grave - Memorial Benches

Laurie Taylor explores the origins of the grave and the meaning of memorial benches.

Laurie Taylor explores the origins and history of the grave, as well as the meaning of memorial benches.

THE GRAVE AND MEMORIAL BENCHES: Laurie Taylor talks to Allison C. Meier, New York based researcher, about how burial sites have transformed over time. Whilst the grave may be a final destination, it is not the great leveller, and permanency is always a privilege with the indigent and unidentified frequently being interred in mass graves.  So what is the future of burial with the rise of cremation, green burial, and new practices like human composting? Can existing spaces of death be returned to community life?

Also, Anne Karpf, Professor of Life Writing and Culture at London Metropolitan University,  explores the phenomenon of the memorial bench. Despite the proliferation of online spaces for memorialising a person who has died, there is a growing demand for physical commemorations in places that were meaningful to them, as evidenced by the waiting-lists for memorial benches in sought-after spots. Do such memorials constitute a ‘living obituary’, a celebration of seemingly undistinguished lives, beyond the grave? 

Producer: Jayne Egerton

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