Is There Anything beyond the End? (Visions of the Afterlife in Contemporary Latvia)

    Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation

    Description

    To provide insight into the shared imaginary of the afterlife of the residents of contemporary Latvia.. This paper will use data from 30 interviews gathered in 2020-2022 as part of the RSU research project “Memento mori: The end of life, death and imagined afterlife in the contemporary Latvian lifeworld”. Research design was phenomenological and applied common phenomenological research procedures – phenomenological reduction, horizontalization of data, textual and structural analyses. Interpretation of data was social constructionist.. The images of the afterlife are spread over a broad spectrum from complete denial of individuals’ continued existence after physical death to very detailed and explicit visions uttered with great conviction. . . Most commonly, images of the afterlife are complex and syncretic, with observable similarities shared by individuals of similar life experience, age and education levels. It can be assumed that the composition of the internalized imaginary is impacted by externalized visions originating in Latvian traditional culture, secularization of the society and hybridization of religious and secular cultures in Latvia.
    Period29 Mar 2023
    Event titleRSU Research week 2023: PLACES
    Event typeConference
    Conference number3
    OrganiserRīga Stradiņš University
    LocationRīga, LatviaShow on map
    Degree of RecognitionInternational

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