The texts in this volume attempt to study death, mortality, and their management in social and political terms. They critically address the trends of naturalizing the causes and conditions of death, the dominant narratives and processes that legitimize practices of exterminating the dangerous Others, and explore the political prerequisites and hierarchies based on which the concepts of human life and human death are subject to different evaluations. They also attempt to bring to the forefront the subversive dynamics of the threatened or dead body, thus challenging the assumption of its compliance with imposed norms and signifiers. [Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]