Publikacja zrecenzowana naukowo, zawierająca materiały z : "International Conference on Decay, Disease, Death in Literatures and Cultures" (26-28.09.2016). Bibliogr. s. 188-189.

The article compares the ways of coping with the metaphysical theme of death and a repulsive subject of human corpse/skeleton in a range of artistic texts produced in Western (basically Christian) and Eastern (Tibetan Buddhist) tradition. The framework of artistic semiotics allows us to treat the products of the fine arts and crafts as texts of culture, in analogy to verbal texts. Western techniques of "taming" death are discussed on the basis of vanitative motifs present in engravings and paintings from the late Renaissance until the 20th c. The Eastern approach is represented by the instructional text of the Tibetan Book of the Dead and death-related practices of Chod, as well as accompanying ceremonial artifacts. The texts are compared against a set of master tropes, the major figures of conceptualization and artistic expression. Despite philosophical differences between Christianity and Tantric Buddhism, certain similarities can be observed. The universal semiotic troping perceives Life and Death not only as an instance of antithesis, but also in terms of euphemia, hyperbole, irony and catachresis (logical transgression). Life and Death in both traditions are ultimately seen as complementing each other, the best way to overcome terror.