Museums of death. Parisian and Moscow cemeteries. Matich O.

Burial is one of the universal institutions necessary for both an individual and a whole society to preserve the memory of the dead. The funeral rites, regulated in many cultural traditions, structure the emotions and behavior of not only grieving, but also all those present. Olga Matich describes the cemeteries not only as valuable sources of local history, but first of all - as museums of art, exploring the architectural and sculptural features of individual monuments, the tombstones and their artistic specificity, reflecting the era: baroque, neoclassicism, romance, modernity and so on. The book is about the main Parisian cemeteries (Pere Lashez, Montparnas, Montmartre and Passy), about the cemeteries of the Moscow (Donskoy, Novodevichye, Vvedenskoye and Vagankovskoye), as well as the Emigrant cemetery of St. Bes-Bois in the vicinity of Paris.

The plots associated with the cemetery as a social institution and an individual place of repose are inscribed by the author in the historical, cultural and political contexts of their time. Olga Matich is a literary critic and a culturologist, professor of Emeritus at the University of California in Berkeley.