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je zadržkov pri ocenjevanju razlogov – mnogokrat ne-
plemenitih in nepremišljenih - ,ki so vodili Salandro in 
Sonnina, še prej pa Viktorja Emanuale III., k italijanski 
intervenciji maja 1915«.
Razprava, ki je prav gotovo marsikje znova prisotna 
ob lanskem oziroma letošnjem jubileju, vendar hkrati 
preseneča ob tako izkušenem in renomiranem avtorju, 
kakršen je Almerigo Apollonio, ter seveda ob vrsti del 
italijanskih, avstrijskih, slovenskih in hrvaških avtorjev, 
ki jih avtor prav gotovo pozna in so, kot uvodoma reče-
no, uspela preseči okvire nacionalistične retorike. Delo, 
v katerega je nedvomno vložil veliko truda in doseda-
njih izkušenj in ki bo nedvomno razširilo obzorje mno-
gih bralcev, seveda ni namenjeno zgolj njim. V roke ga 
bo vzel tudi marsikateri zgodovinar in poznavalec ob-
dobja, ki ga v njem obravnava, zato pri tovrstnem zgo-
dovinskem čtivu in tematiki, ki jo obravnava, avtor tega 
ne bi smel spregledati in zanemariti.
Salvator Žitko
Todor Kuljić (2014): TANATOPOLITIKA. 
SOCIOLOŠKOISTORIJSKA ANALIZA POLITIČKE 
UPOTREBE SMRTI (Thanatopolitics. The sociological-
historical analysis of the political use of the death). 
 Čigoja štampa, Beograd, 423 strani.
Man is a being who thinks and uses death. In the 
course of history, a mere fact of fi niteness of life did not 
only inspire complex philosophical contemplations and 
caused restlessness, but also a political utilisation of 
death anxiety, which is not less complex. Moreover, not 
only do undertakers make a living through the death, 
but rulers as well. The subordinated are deliberately de-
ceived by death. Thanatopolitics deals with political use 
of death, grave and corpse. The important dead people 
are claimed as integrative symbols of the order of the 
living. Critical thanatology goes even further and stud-
ies social inequalities in dying and ideological utilisa-
tion of death. Prescribed norms in dealing with death 
are a part of ideology which justifi es inequality of the 
living. Criticism of various thanatological ideologies i.e. 
utilisations of death by the living ruling groups is the 
topic of Kuljić’s book. How do the rulers control the 
subordinated through funerals, graves and commemora-
tions? A wider thanato-sociological frame is needed to 
study this complex and historically changeable activity. 
The analysis of each historical epoch started with he-
gemonic interpretation of death and with the vision of a 
good death. These contents justify, directly or indirectly, 
the interests of ruling groups: the dead go to heaven of 
hell, after death their souls transmigrate to another living 
body through reincarnation or they become an eternal 
part of the nation or the class. Thanatopolitics studies 
various political and ideological use of death, while 
thanato-sociology studies a deeper interest aspect of 
these activities. Thanatopolitics is a part of the culture of 
remembrance and its frame in this book is not outlined 
ethnologically or historiographycally, but sociologically, 
stresses author.
The fi rst part of the book gives elements of theoreti-
cal and conceptual frame and the relationship between 
thanatopolitics and thanatosociology is defi ned. Three 
aspects of study of thanatopolitics are explained: (1) his-
torical, (2) symbolical – ritual, and (3) class aspect. So-
cial and political aspects of death are defi ned as well as 
rituals, symbols and different desirable visions of death. 
In consideration of social-integrative public ritualisation 
and symbolisation of death, attention is paid mostly to 
grave and funeral. Commemoration of the dead evokes 
emotions, then it turns into a myth, and fi nally it be-
comes social-integrative cultural memory which is used 
to justify rulers power. Today, there are also attempts to 
transfer charisma of the dead to the living through burial 
rites. The aim of burial rites is to transform the vanish-
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ing of an individual into stimulation for renewal and 
demonstration of imperishable group entities: religion, 
ideology, state or party. Each funeral demonstrates the 
way a group overcomes and accepts death. A ritual over 
a corpse in politics should ensure loyalty to a group as-
piring to retain or seize power, while the funeral itself is 
used to tranquilise political groups after shake-ups.
Thanatopolitics does not see fear as simple anthro-
pological anxiety about vanishing, but as an important 
emotional political potential. Changes in society have 
always been a frame of changing the consciousness 
about death and political use of death. Modernisation, 
dissolution of patriarchal society, decline of religion 
and advances in medicine, they have all been essen-
tial impetuses to change in attitude towards death. The 
disappearance of fear of God’s judgement has not only 
changed the fear of death, but the utilisation of death 
as well. Every thanatopolitics is the political economy 
of death: from the antique slave trade to the exploita-
tion of gold teeth of killed people in Auschwitz. It is 
about preserving the privileges of the living through the 
dead. Criticism of justifi cation of inequality by natural 
or violent death is the object of thanatopolitics as a sci-
entifi c discipline. Thanatopolitics i.e. the utilisation of 
death cannot be understood without consideration of 
real social confl icts which determined hegemonic ideal 
context of comprehension of death (mythical, religious 
or secular) and its interpreters (prophets, priests or party 
offi cials). In the course of history, the ruling groups have 
always organised and purposely irrationalised the fear 
of unwished death and imposed hegemonic vision of a 
good death. The theoretical principles of comparative 
approach to this praxis have been elaborated in a wider 
way. In this Kuljić’s book thanatopolitics is not under-
stood only as ideological praxis, but also as a scientifi c 
discipline. The overview and criticism of different his-
torical patterns of ideologisation of death is an attempt 
to found thanatopolitics as a scientifi c discipline. Re-
search priorities of thanatopolitics were clearly defi ned 
through analysis of historical material.
The second chapter is entitled “The beyond as the 
political capital”. The relations between metaphysics of 
death and the politics are here considered as well as 
the evolution of dealing with death from ancient times 
to modern era, and changes in public utilisation use 
of the corpse. Religious thanatopolitics is here mostly 
dealt with because it is understood neither as a simple 
superstition nor historically ephemeral delusion; on the 
contrary, it is understood as an ideological factor which 
is still strong. Due to the lack of after-death experience, 
symbolisation of inexperience is very imaginative, per-
suasive to different extents, but always politically usa-
ble. Most part is devoted to the use of death in Christian 
political ideology, to the role of purgatory as a sign of 
capitalism and to the role of pest as a factor in changing 
of feudalism. Inexhaustible imagination used for intimi-
dation by hell in political theology requested political 
obeisance and biddability. Introduction of purgatory 
was the apex of clerical thanatopolitics in the Middle 
Ages and theological response to growth of complexity 
of social structure. The 14th century pest surely acceler-
ated important social and economic changes and weak-
ened the church showing its impotence.
The third chapter is entitled “Liberation of death”. If 
the political manipulation with the beyond was shaken 
up by the 14th century pest, at the end of the 18th cen-
tury the Enlightenment defi nitely broke the same illusion. 
Weakening of grace of God and disappearance of belief 
in the Judgement Day changed the political potential of 
death. Microscope and telescope equally prompted a rev-
olutionary blowing apart of the idea of God-ordained af-
terlife and anonymous heaven or hell. The fi rst instrument 
demystifi ed human body, while the other one demysti-
fi ed heaven. The change of the criteria of imperishabil-
ity changed the political potential of death as well. The 
Judgement Day was replaced with moral and political 
estimation of a dead person’s merits and his/her contribu-
tion to revolution and the nation, not to the church. The 
state became a new actor of thanatopolitics. It took over 
the church’s role in regulation of dying and ideologisation 
of death. Changes of visions of a good death i.e. socially 
acceptable way of dying, are given here. During history 
a vision of desirable death waved between natural death, 
violent (heroic) death and death of our own free will (sui-
cidal). Guidelines for a good death were a basis for the 
political use of it in every period. The difference between 
traditional, modern and postmodern death is noted here. 
The main historic forms of social death i.e. nullifying and 
depriving a living or dead individual of his/her social role 
are analysed (planned oblivion, slavery and hidden so-
cial dying). Slavery is estimated as an extreme form of so-
cial death and disappearance of institution (party, state), 
which has purposely cherished authority of a leader, has 
always been important for political death.
Heroes and martyrs as real and constructed social 
roles are often used in thanatopolitics as positive heroes. 
These are politically most usable versions of death and 
role models of desirable dying. The difference between 
heroes, who were predominantly victims in the name 
of ideology, and martyrs, who perished in the name of 
faith, is shown using historical and modern examples. It 
is about political use of chosen endurance which ends 
with dying in the name of faith or political beliefs, which 
the group uses purposely (from the early Christian mar-
tyrs to contemporary suicide bombers). A hero and a 
martyr are later constructed by a group exploiting their 
member’s death of his/her own will to satisfy the needs 
by remembering them. The nineteenth-century phenom-
enon of cult of national victim was a milestone in ide-
ologisation of heroism. From that time on, martyrdom 
for the nation as a pious act, which was purposely cher-
ished, irresistibly suppressed Christian martyrs in the 
name of the faith and became thanatopolitical canon 
law of every nationalism stresses author.
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The conclusion is that different contents are hidden 
behind formal symbolism of heroic death because lib-
erations brought by heroes are also different: religious, 
national and class. For sociology, the content of victim-
hood is as important as its symbolism, which is reviewed 
in details in the chapter “Death as viewed by the left 
wing and the right wing”. The left wing heroised death 
of revolutionaries in their fi ght for equality against the 
class enemy, while the right wing gave charismatic qual-
ity to the warriors killed in fi ght against the national and 
racial Other. It happened that the fascists and the com-
munists had opposed views not only on the desirable 
visions of society, but also on death. The fascists found 
virtues in quality of national blood, while the commu-
nists found them in class consciousness, hence different 
attitudes towards death in these two ideologies.
The title of the fourth chapter is “Political funerals”. 
Apart from integrative role of funeral rites, every organ-
ized acts of remembrance in memory of dead ruler has 
normative functions. Memory of the dead should ensure 
continuity and order. As a rule, a triple scattered fu-
neral ceremony (protocol composition and procession, 
the content of a speech and the musical message dur-
ing interment) refers to desirable values of the ruler’s 
successors. In this context funerals of Josip Broz Tito, 
Franjo Tuđman, Slobodan Milošević, King Aleksandar 
II Karađorđević and Zoran Đinđić are here analysed. 
Prevailing group symbols are underlined (military, civ-
il, clerical, workers, etc.), then dominating conceptual 
contents in moralism in tombstone rhetoric (religious, 
secular, class, national, state or party component), what 
activism of rhetoric over the catafalque is like (liberat-
ing, formal, revanchist, conciliating), which emotions 
should be incited among the mourners (pride, gloom, 
injustice), to what extent are stressed the deceased per-
son’s authority and reputation (regional, national or su-
pranational), which are central fi gures of speech (justice, 
fatherland, nation, democracy) and what is the structure 
of mourners. The said funerals were demonstrations of 
diametrically opposed values (Yugoslav, national, class 
and clerical) within sorrow and piety. Political funerals 
are emotionalized group rites everywhere, with a dead 
ruler having the role of unifying national symbol and 
a symbol of duration and continuity of the state. The 
group attending the funeral attempts to tailor the mean-
ing of life of the deceased to their own values. The poli-
tics rationalises, generates and creates preferable values 
and demonstrates it publicly during the funeral rite. The 
meaning of life of the deceased is offi cially submitted to 
general desirable values, the deceased being indicated 
as a role model for the living, and the will of the de-
ceased is constructed. A mass funeral of a public fi gure 
is a part of the process of creation of identity and of 
public demonstration of solidarity with certain values.
The fi fth part of the book is about monuments as spa-
tial memorial which ensures piety and identity. Monu-
ments do not signify only the place of interment, but they 
are also symbolic constructions of the meaning. They do 
not pass on the messages of the dead, but the living use 
them to communicate with the living. The petrifi ed-stone 
memory memory testifi es about groups which were so 
powerful in certain times as to participate in the public 
space and about the particular place certain groups oc-
cupied in a specifi c historical and spatial hierarchy of 
memory. Author’s attention is mostly drawn to the role 
of monuments in the modern history. Since the 19th 
century on, there have been monuments erected every-
where in memory of the state founders. The most com-
monly seen monuments represented a horseback rider 
as a universal metaphor of established unity imposed 
from the top by means of blood and iron. In this part 
of the book, the evolution of erection of monuments in 
our region is reviewed as well as tearing down of monu-
ments after the fall of socialism, but also the changes in 
meaning of the grave and the monument. Everywhere 
the public monuments demonstrate fi ght and death as 
the price of group (class and national) unity. The public 
monuments of kings, princes and national leaders of the 
region are elaborately analysed as important symbolic 
capital of new Balkan states. Tearing down the commu-
nist public monuments was an important testimony of 
change of values and identity. This strong spatial revolu-
tion of memory was a Europe-wide phenomenon, while 
in the Balkans it was the most frequent in Croatia and 
Kosovo. Today’s monuments are erected in memory of 
national victims and the victims of the communist era.
The differences between conventional monument 
and antimonument are analysed in the chapter about 
antimonument. Conventional monuments manifest 
glorious state-centric, often national one-dimensional 
memory. They celebrate the cult of war, hero and nation-
al or ideological liberation. However, antimonument is 
multi-dimensional, it manifests several alternative emo-
tions, it embraces antiheroes and society. Comparison 
of aesthetic and political side of classical monument 
and antimonument is given here. In spite of construc-
tive criticism of conventional monuments, it has been 
shown that not even the basic vision of antimonument is 
deprived of ambivalence which may be comprehended 
as a tension between relativism and demonumentalisa-
tion. Debates about antimonuments in Germany (Me-
morial to the Murdered Jews in Europe in Berlin) and in 
the USA (Vietnam Veterans Memorial) are considered. 
It has been shown that at the end of the 20th century 
new European states renewed nationalism and classical 
monuments (horseback riders) without any critical self-
refl ecion. Attention has been drawn to the fact that due 
to the normalisation of nationalism, antimonuments are 
not relevant in our region either.
The conclusions of the book by the Prof. Todor Kuljić 
(Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade), are the following. 
Thanatopolitics is a permanent fi ght about meaning be-
ing imposed and the protection of group interests through 
various symbolisations of the dead. The considered vari-
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ous historical patterns of political utilisation of death testi-
fy about survival of general symbolic integration patterns 
over death. Historical view was supposed to show differ-
ent strength of the connection between death symbols and 
politics and a variety of factors (technical-technological, 
conceptual-ideological and class-stratum) which modi-
fi ed this connection in different times. Beside a more spe-
cifi c class function, imaginative political utilisation and 
symbolisation of death had a more general social-integra-
tive function. The basic universal thanatopolitical pattern 
runs like this: individual is mortal, group is not. Symbols 
of death are therefore symbols of imperishable group. In 
the course of history different types of political collectives 
have been emphasised as supreme imperishable whole-
ness in the sense of moral and values. Consequently, dy-
ing for a politically supreme collective is heroised as a 
good death. Politisation of death developed in the form 
of moralisation of unselfi sh dying for a group, but also in 
the form of threatening with torment in the beyond. These 
two thanatopolitical patterns have been analysed at the 
examples of funerals, arrangements of graves and various 
impositions of visions of a good death.
Two basic European contexts which facilitated the 
use of the beyond have been noted. The fi rst is a pre-
modern context which is visible in every place where 
illiteracy, ignorance and superstition reigned. In the 
thanatopolitical sense these circumstances were used 
by the church above all, but also by various mystic 
prophets. The other modern context of hegemonic use 
of the beyond is characterised more by identity and less 
by mysticism. The rituals related to the beyond are less 
connected with the direct path towards him because 
the superstition scope is narrowed due to a higher de-
gree of enlightenment. Death is now politically used to 
strengthen national and confessional identity.
Interpretation of different symbolizations of death is 
understood in the book as a part of critique of ideol-
ogy. Symbols are not interpreted exclusively as empty 
metaphors. Concentrated comprehension of life-death 
relation is always present in them. It is the meaning that 
every hegemonic epoch consciousness and every power 
impose as a reward when justifying the interests of the 
ruling state-organised and church-organised groups: the 
deserved heaven, canonisation and declaration of mar-
tyrdom or a variety of secular recognitions of sacrifi ce 
and heroism. The analysed symbolic thanatopolitical 
orders have been built in different conceptual frames 
during history: magical, religious and secular. In the 
very disproportional development of human conscious-
ness about death and the beyond, the key evolutionary 
and revolutionary factors which have induced changes 
of key thanatopolitical ideological formulas are marked: 
wars, epidemics, advances in medicine and engineer-
ing, enlightenment and social revolutions.
Methodically, the Kuljić’s book is a combination of 
symbolism and critique of ideology. It has always been 
born in mind that every power use death and prescribes 
norms for foreground of deserved life, but it has never 
been forgotten whose class interests are protected by ac-
tual authority. Infusing sociological structural approach 
was aimed at overcoming formalism of symbolism and 
functionalism in explanation of thanatopolitics. Name-
ly, it has always been important which institution and 
which class has the monopoly on the use of death and 
on prescribing the desirable way of dying.
Today, a nation is a hegemonic political collective of 
postmortem affi liation. In modern capitalism the belief 
in immortality of the nation is combative, imaginative, 
symbolic overcoming of physical end of individual. At 
the end of the 20th century national monuments were 
renewed. Antimonuments were not accepted as alterna-
tive forms of memory. Remembrance of glorious nation-
al rulers serves every authority to present itself as a link 
in a chain of immortal national collective. In addition, 
endurance of the subjects of those same rulers is not 
the issue. Confessionalisation of the nations and readi-
ness to be the nation’s victim has been the main than-
atopolitical potential since the end of the 18th century. 
Religious vision of imperishable political collective was 
restored in a new way in anticommunist frame at the 
end of the 20th century. Even today, thanatopolitics may 
be always recognised where there is authority attempt-
ing to convince the subjects that afterlife is not a mere 
continuation of this life, but a noble participation in im-
perishability of political identities (confession, nation or 
race) and every time when winning the subjects over for 
this conviction is used to present the own interests as 
general ones, stresses in the conclusion author T. Kuljić.
Avgust Lešnik