¹1812 1st Avenue No. 203, Minneapolis, MN 55403, USA.

Correspondence: Sophie Smith, E-mail: sophie.smith@gmail.com

Abstract

From the isolation of the hospital bed to the specialization of the mortuary, the experiential dynamics of grief and dying are largely excluded from the American public sphere. And yet death persists and proliferates in the entertainment and news industries in the form of virtual spectacle. Through an examination of the popular television series Six Feet Under, this study explores the place of representation in inciting, challenging and sustaining expressions of anxiety and social repression surrounding the experience of death and grief in contemporary life. The work of theorist Fredric Jameson on the Freudian notion of historical figurability provides methodological grounding for understanding such works of mass culture as both expressive and productive of the political status quo.