Death, Desire and Loss in Western Culture is a book written by Jonathan Dollimore, published in 1998. The book gives a summary of the role that death, desire and loss plays in western culture from the old Greeks, christians, early modern poets, modern sociologists to the homosexual subculture. Jonathan Dollimore (b. ... Death is the cessation of physical life in a living organism, or the state of the organism after that event. ... In psychology, motivation is the driving force (desire) behind all actions of human beings, animals, and lower organisms. ... Leonardo da Vincis Vitruvian Man, for many a symbol of the changes of the Western culture during the Renaissance Western culture refers to the culture that has developed in the Western world. ...

According to Dollimore, there is a strong tradition of obsession with death in western culture. Postmodernism is heavily influenced by this tradition. Socrates played in important role in this tradition. He welcomed death because his human body withheld him from knowing the truth. Throughout history, there were many western thinkers who emphasized that the earthly and the human body changes and rots away. Desire will be replaced by new desires and leads to nothing in the end. This mentality can be seen in christianity and in western poetry. Example: Shakespeare says in Hamlet: 'desire is death.' To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... This article is about the ancient Greek philosopher, for all other uses see: Socrates (disambiguation) Socrates (June 4, ca. ... This article is about the normal meaning of change (things varying). ... Christianity is a monotheistic religion that recognizes Jesus Christ as its central figure, Lord and Messiah. ... Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is traditionally a written art form (although there is also an ancient and modern poetry which relies mainly upon oral or pictorial representations) in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... William Shakespeare—born April 1564; baptised April 26, 1564; died April 23, 1616 (O.S.), May 3, 1616 (N.S.)—has a reputation as the greatest of all writers in English. ... The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by William Shakespeare and one of his best-known and most oft-quoted plays. ...

Another tradition is denial of death and social death. Dollimore means with the concept of denial of death that modernism (and some other ideologies) doesn't mention death. An example is the work of Karl Marx who describes history and future, without using the word death. Society was changing and western thinkers new this. Marx and other modernists wanted to control change in order to change society for the better. Conservatives and social darwinists wanted to control change to stop society from changing, because they were afraid that change would destroy their society. The concept of social death deals with the regimes of Stalin and Hitler who tried to control change with genocide. Modernism as an artistic and cultural movement that generally includes progressive art and architecture, music and literature emerging in the decades before 1914, as artists rebelled against late 19th century academic and historicist traditions. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883 London) was an influential philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary organizer of the International Workingmens Association. ... Conservatism is any of a number of political philosophies supporting traditional values or an established social order. ... Social Darwinism is a term used to describe a style or trend in social theory which holds that Darwins theory of evolution of biological traits in a population by natural selection can also be applied to human social institutions. ... Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვილი; see Other names section) (December 21, 1879[1] – March 5, 1953) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and leader of the Soviet Union. ... Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945, standard German pronunciation in the IPA) was the Führer (leader) of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) and of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. ... Genocide is defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) article 2 as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing...

Nietzsche was against the deathwish of christianity, which he calls a slave morale. He was against the décadence of nihilists. He was also against attempts to control change like the marxists and social-darwinists attempted. Instead, he wanted humans to embrace change, even if it would mean embracing death. Friedrich Nietzsche, 1882 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 - August 25, 1900) was a highly influential German philosopher. ... Decadence was the name given, first by hostile critics, and then triumphantly adopted by some writers themselves, to a number of late nineteenth century fin de siècle writers associated with Symbolism or the Aesthetic movement. ...

The book gives different concepts of thinking about death and gives examples of thinkers within each concept. Many poems are used, including from jacobine poets of the 17th century and from romantic poets like lord Byron. This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... The poet George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron is often referred to simply as Byron. ...