Viimsetest sõnadest meediaajastul

Abstract

In our time the "institution of last words" (Dennis Joseph Enright), which privileges a person's dying utterance as the most revealing and indeed defining verbal expression has by and large lost its religious implications. Continuing to contribute to the everyday mythology we live by (the "folklore of the educated"), it has found receptive ground in the media; film, advertising, the songs of pop stars, comics, art shows, cartoons and the newspapers (obituaries of the famous, "human interest stories", reports on executions, catastrophes, murders, etc.). Source (in German): Guthke, Karl S. 1999. Letzte Worte in der Medien-Kultur. Zeitschrift für Volkskunde 95: II, pp. 197-219.