The Dead Amongst the Living: Agency, Intention, and Power

Abstract

<p>The dead are viewed as having agency in this world when they make a difference to<br>our lives. This article explores the various forms of agency that the dead are felt to have. Also, it<br>looks at the power relations between the living and the dead. The research is based on archived<br>narratives and internet discussions produced in Finland in the 21st century. The dead can be felt<br>to have intentional agency that either derives from the past when they were alive, or emerges<br>from a spiritual realm. But usually, their agency is viewed as non-intentional. As such, it is only<br>represented by their memory or material objects in relation to the living in actor-networks. The<br>representations can also serve the intentions of the bereaved. After all, it is the living who narrate<br>the story of the dead, selecting what to include in it. Thus, there are even stories about deceased<br>people and haunting that are next to fiction. But in everyday life, close relatives may have had such<br>a formative role in one’s identity that one cannot control their, or even one’s own, story. The dead<br>can have agency without intentions.</p>