Q. With the author-date system, I know that punctuation is supposed to follow the reference—for example, “And his other misfortune” (Brown 2001, 1a). But does this still hold true for questions? It just plain looks wrong to me. For example:
It appears as if, in the culture of breast cancer, death is a taboo: “Why is there no room in this cult for some gracious acceptance of death, when the time comes, which it surely will, through cancer or other misfortune” (Ehrenreich 2001, 1a)?
A. Here, the question mark is part of the quotation. The larger, overall sentence (which is a statement) requires its own ending punctuation:
It appears that death is a taboo, but “why is there no room . . . for some gracious acceptance?” (Ehrenreich 2001, 1a).
When the overall sentence is a question, the question mark goes at the end, after the reference:
Is death a taboo, with no room for “gracious acceptance” (Ehrenreich 2001, 1a)?