Orbituary as an institutional statement

Abstract

For a modern individual, identifying and classifying oneself and others through the professional community to which one belongs is highly relevant. In modern obituaries, the working life, public service, and professional qualities of the deceased often overshadow their individual personality traits. As a result, references to profession, involvement in specific organizations, and a list of professional achievements have become distinctive and even integral features of modern obituaries. The procedure for publishing an obituary in a newspaper reflects social hierarchy and denotes the social status of the deceased during their lifetime. The author of an obituary is often presented as a collective voice — representatives of a specific organization. Furthermore, the involvement of the deceased in particular institutions and professional fields is frequently evident in the design of tombstones in modern urban cemeteries. The earthly successes of the deceased are often recorded in the space of the dead, thus immortalizing their achievements. Institutions, therefore, dictate a particular procedure for integrating the deceased into the space of public memory. This article will focus on the ways in which the professional affiliations of the deceased are articulated and their working achievements externalized through an institutionalized set of expressive means and clichés. It will also examine the choice of specific life scenarios used to describe the life of the deceased. The conclusions presented in the article are based on data from a study of obituaries (2000–2015) published in the Tsarskoselskaya Gazeta, the leading print media outlet in the town of Pushkin (a locality within the Pushkinsky District of St. Petersburg), as well as an analysis of early 21st-century tombstones at Kuzminskoye Cemetery, one of the main burial grounds in the town.