Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. In “On the Challenges of Writing About Death” on LitHub novelist Annie Lyons writes how irresistible it is for authors to write about death: “Like long-lost relatives turning up out of the blue or locked doors leading to who knows where, death has been catnip for writers since the beginning of time.” Lyons goes onto say that, in dealing with her own mother’s death, she realized we “owe it to ourselves and those we love to face death, not with fear, but with hope and honesty.” Think of the last few books and/or movies you’ve read or watched that deal with the death of a major character in the work. How did it affect the characters? How did it affect the general arc of the story? More broadly, why do authors write so much about death?

Teaching Suggestion: Brace students for dealing with lengthy discussions – occasionally graphic – about the subject of death. Ease them into being comfortable talking about the subject by having them think about death and the way it functions as a literary device.