Digital Death

Come si narra la morte con l’avvento del web

Abstract

Taking the cue from some reflections by Walter Benjamin and Eugéne Minkowski, the present paper wants to analyze the relationship between death and narration in the age of digital culture. In fact, the so–called “Digital Death” revolutionizes our bond with death, with the traditional thought of immortality and with the Geisterwelt. Once the author has defined the “Digital Death”, this paper firstly describes some current forms of digital communication (Eterni.me, Eter9) that try to get rid of death, impoverishing narrations and handed–down knowledge. Secondly, it describes other forms (Facebook and social networks in general) that, on the contrary, offer new resources through which we can enrich our memory of the dead, thus reinvigorating the role of death as an authority from which all narrated stories stem.