Overview

This handbook explores and critically evaluates key debates and controversies in the emerging field of Dark Events. It brings together leading specialists from a range of disciplinary backgrounds and geographical regions to provide state-of-the-art theoretical reflection and empirical research on celebrations, heritage and customs of death (events) and the macabre. Divided into ten parts, the book explores traditions of dark festivals and events; the display of the dead; commemoration and authenticity within the context of dark events; dark events from the past; dark events in popular culture; controversial dark events; grief and memory; managing dark event experiences; decolonisation and equality for the dead; and dark event futures. This significant volume offers the reader a comprehensive synthesis of this emerging field, conveying the latest thinking and research. The text is international in focus, encouraging dialogue across disciplinary boundaries and areas of study, providing an invaluable resource for all those with an interest in Dark Events. This is essential reading for students, researchers and academics of Dark Events, as well as those of related studies such as tourism, cultural studies, leisure, geography, sociology, death studies and museums.

Full Product Details

Author:   Brianna Wyatt (Oxford Brookes University, UK) ,  Hannah Stewart ,  James Kennell (University of Surrey, UK) ,  Philip R. Stone
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   1.190kg
ISBN:  

9781032766706

ISBN 10:   1032766700
Pages:   528
Publication Date:   31 March 2026
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

PART I Cultural celebrations, traditions and honouring the dead in dark events 1.A play to banish the darkness: The domestication of death in Bulgarian folk traditions 2.Sacred shadowed pathways: Kūkai and the Shikoku Pilgrimage 3.Rituals of remembrance: Exploring mortuary and mourning rites among the Akan of Ghana 4.Nigeria Indigenous community and befitting burial for the deceased going-to-the-spirit land 5.Sacred sustenance: Culinary death rituals and mourning events among Assamese Hindus and Christian Nagas PART II Interpretation, representation and display of the dead for dark events 6.Commemorating the deceased through the Hungry Ghosts Festival in Hong Kong 7.Representing Samhain: Symbols, semiotics and Halloween 8.Fact or Fiction: Walpurgis Night and the commemoration of the victims of Germany’s witch trials 9.Italy’s martyrs for peace: Representing suffering and patriotic sacrifice after the Nasiriyah Massacre of 2003 PART III Negotiating commemoration, commodification and authenticity in dark events 10.Re-enacting the Gulag: Authenticity and commemoration of the Soviet penal heritage in Kazakhstan 11.Dark commemorative events and selective amnesia in Cambodia 12.Death, ritual, and deification: Examining the commemorative procession of Kerala’s iconic politician, Oommen Chandy 13.Ritual returns: Commemoration, commodification and the evolution of UK Halloween Festivals PART IV Historical dark events and reflecting on the past 14.‘More like the first exhibition at a playhouse, than the solemnity of a funeral’: Spectating urban funeral events in late-eighteenth century London 15.Seeing justice done: A day at the Tyburn Fair in the long eighteenth century 16.At the dark edge of life and death: Sin-eating rituals in Britain (1640-1900) 17.Shadows of the departed: Post-mortem photography and mourning rituals in Victorian society 18.Immortalising the premature death: Commemorating talented daughters in Ming-Qing China (16th to early 20th centuries) 19.Honour and sacrifice: The socio-cultural dynamics of Jauhar and co-cremation in medieval South Asian traditions V Dark events in popular culture and media 20.Manifesting ghosts and mimicking ghost hunters: Media and the rise of ghost hunting events 21.Heroism to horror: The reception and transformation of the ‘blood eagle’ in popular culture 22.If they come, we must build it: Popular culture, tradition and the Hollywoodization of Día de Muertos in Mexico City 23.Celebration, cultural appropriation, or something else? La Catrina, Barbie dolls, and Day of the Dead 24.La Santa Compaña: A demonstration of the literary and ritualistic richness surrounding death in Galician folklore PART VI Culture, controversy and dark events 25.Navigating culture, religion and controversy: The Penitensya rituals in the Philippines as a dark event 26.Death as a celebration of spiritual liberation: The controversial pathways of Aghorī Sādhus in India 27.Multivalent organised commemoration of the Great War: Building transcultural memory with (embedded) fissures 28.Dark events and media controversies: Remembrance Sunday in the United Kingdom PART VII Dealing with grief and memory at and through dark events 29.The Dust Parlour: Speaking to the dead 30.Death at play: Celebration and memorialisation of motorsport’s dead 31.Eternal troupers: Circus death memorialization and community identity 32.Managing death rites and mourning rituals in the modern era: The evolution of Brazilian funeral rites PART VIII Managing dark event experiences 33.Managing collective memory through funeral events: an experience design perspective 34.Cultivating a death network through dark academic and pedagogical events 35.Managing Black Metal Festivals 36.Managing event spaces and visitor experiences: Entering liminal worlds at the Whitby Goth Weekend and Dublin’s Bram Stoker Festival 37.Managing subcultural capital dynamics for dark events: The case of the Moonlight Goth Music Festival (Italy, 2009–2011) PART IX Legacy, decolonisation and equality for the dead within dark events 38.Murder mystery and mayhem: Digging up the human stories lurking in 19th century cemeteries 39.Considering the legacy of cultural genocide: Commemorating the colonial expulsion of the Garifuna from their Caribbean homeland 40.Glocal perspectives on the dark heritage of Indigenous reconciliation events PART X Dark event futures 41.Royal funerals as dark events: Organisational and emotional challenges 42.Tea & hammers: New weapons in the battle with death anxiety 43.Glacier funerals as dark events of the Anthropocene 44.Bringing out the dead: Body Worlds exhibits as touchstones for reflection 45.Dark events and remaking our lifeworld: An afterword

Reviews

""Readers of the Routledge Handbook of Dark Events will be challenged: about preconceived notions of why events are held to commemorate death, wars, and disasters; why people travel for ritualised and sanitised horror; why dark events and dark tourism have become mainstream. The contributors and editors of this reference volume have, in ten sections, systematically and provocatively covered the entire field as never before. They have achieved balance between theory and real-world examples, provided an inter-disciplinary approach that will appeal to many scholars and practitioners in diverse fields, explored ethical and practical issues, and created a landmark to both consolidate and advance these fields."" Donald Getz, PhD, Professor Emeritus, The University of Calgary, CA ""This outstanding Handbook elucidates the complexities of dark events and offers profound insights into people’s fascination with human suffering and death, and the commemoration of such phenomena through events and other touristic happenings. The book’s multifaceted perspectives on humankind’s interest in the macabre provide an excellent treatise on the hauntological outcomes of the performativity, ritualization, memorialization and heritagization of difficult pasts. A must-read collection!"" Dallen J. Timothy, Arizona State University, US

Author Information

Brianna Wyatt is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Tourism, Events, Entertainment and Attractions at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida, USA. She is also a Visiting Researcher for Oxford Brookes University, UK. Her publications, primary research interests and industry experience centre on interpretation and experience design in heritage and dark tourism. Brianna is a consulting academic, with her most recent work pertaining to interpretation and visitor experience development for penal heritage attractions in the UK. Hannah Stewart is a cultural events specialist and PhD candidate at the Institute for Dark Tourism Research (iDTR), University of Lancashire. Her doctoral research critically examines Halloween heritage in Salem (USA) and Pendle (UK), exploring supernatural placemaking, cultural imperialism and the commodification of historical trauma through the lens of Dark Event Tourism. She has also designed, produced and delivered large-scale events across Canada, the UK and the Middle East. James Kennell is the Head of Surrey Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of Surrey, UK, where he is also an Associate Professor in Events and Hospitality. His research explores issues associated with the relationships between the events, tourism and hospitality industries and society, and he has particular interests in the fields of policy and governance, political and protest events, dark tourism and exploration of events connected to conflict and tragedy. Philip R. Stone is the Director of the Institute for Dark Tourism Research (iDTR) at the University of Lancashire, UK. He is an internationally recognised scholar in the field of dark tourism and ‘difficult heritage’ and has published extensively about the subject. Philip is also a Media Consultant on dark tourism, with clients including the BBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Guardian and The Washington Post.

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