Based on the increased spread of biographical narratives in different media and their commercial success, this article evaluates the new sites for the expression of biographies, and discusses the relationship between media and memory in contemporary culture. Obituaries, memorials and television coverage of the funerals of artists and famous politicians are seen as narratives which reconstruct the trajectories of their life, which gain new meanings at the time of their death, and are dramatized and broadcast for the consumption of millions of viewers.
media; memory; death; heroes; brazilian culture