Death, Grief and Poverty in Britain, 1870–1914Cambridge University Press, 2005 M07 25 - 294 pages With high mortality rates, it has been assumed that the poor in Victorian and Edwardian Britain did not mourn their dead. Contesting this approach, Julie-Marie Strange studies the expression of grief among the working class, demonstrating that poverty increased - rather than deadened - it. She illustrates the mourning practices of the working classes through chapters addressing care of the corpse, the funeral, the cemetery, commemoration, and high infant mortality rates. The book draws on a broad range of sources to analyse the feelings and behaviours of the labouring poor, using not only personal testimony but also fiction, journalism, and official reports. It concludes that poor people did not only use spoken or written words to express their grief, but also complex symbols, actions and, significantly, silence. This book will be an invaluable contribution to an important and neglected area of social and cultural history. |
From inside the book
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Page 7
... beliefs of the poor . Assessing popular response to the Anatomy Act , Ruth Richardson concluded that fears for the integrity of the corpse shaped the Victorian culture of death : the trappings of increas- ingly expensive funerals were ...
... beliefs of the poor . Assessing popular response to the Anatomy Act , Ruth Richardson concluded that fears for the integrity of the corpse shaped the Victorian culture of death : the trappings of increas- ingly expensive funerals were ...
Page 8
... belief or 30 S. Tarlow, Bereavement and Commemoration: An Archaeology of Mortality (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999). 31 P. Jalland, Death in the Victorian Family (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). denied the unbeliever the opportunity ...
... belief or 30 S. Tarlow, Bereavement and Commemoration: An Archaeology of Mortality (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999). 31 P. Jalland, Death in the Victorian Family (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). denied the unbeliever the opportunity ...
Page 9
... belief and the articulation of private and social memory.30 Post - interment ' rituals of sorrow ' ( such as indulgence in consolation literature and memento mori ) provided long - term strategies for dealing with the onslaught of grief ...
... belief and the articulation of private and social memory.30 Post - interment ' rituals of sorrow ' ( such as indulgence in consolation literature and memento mori ) provided long - term strategies for dealing with the onslaught of grief ...
Page 10
... beliefs about death of the middle and upper classes auto- matically filtered down to the working classes'.38 Acknowledging that working - class attitudes towards death were obscure , both Cannadine and Jalland focused exclusively on ...
... beliefs about death of the middle and upper classes auto- matically filtered down to the working classes'.38 Acknowledging that working - class attitudes towards death were obscure , both Cannadine and Jalland focused exclusively on ...
Page 11
... belief that the working classes were rarely touched by extreme , or to use Vincent's phrase , ' pure ' grief . In reading a culture of ' contain- ment ' in relation to financial management , Vincent seems to deny the working - class ...
... belief that the working classes were rarely touched by extreme , or to use Vincent's phrase , ' pure ' grief . In reading a culture of ' contain- ment ' in relation to financial management , Vincent seems to deny the working - class ...
Contents
1 | |
2 Life sickness and death | 27 |
3 Caring for the corpse | 66 |
4 The funeral | 98 |
reassessing the pauper burial | 131 |
the cemetery as a landscape for grief | 163 |
7 Loss memory and the management of feeling | 194 |
8 Grieving for dead children | 230 |
death grief and the Great War | 263 |
Bibliography | 274 |
Index | 290 |
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Common terms and phrases
Anfield Cemetery argued Asylum babies BALS ABZ belief bereaved body BOHT Bolton Bolton Burial Board burial ground burial insurance burial service burial space cadaver Cambridge Catholic cemetery child Childhood classes coffin commemoration common grave concerning context corpse culture of death customs Cwmardy D. H. Lawrence dead deceased died dying Edwardian emotional emphasised exhumation expression father funeral Gissing grave deeds grave owners grave space grief guardians Haslingden headstone highlights History Ibid identity implied infant interment Jalland Jones Lancashire Lancet Liverpool Daily Post living London loss LVRO 352 HEA Manchester Maud Pember Reeves memory mortality mother mourning neighbours noted notions OH Transcript Oxford parents parish pauper burial pauper grave perceived perceptions post-mortem poverty private grave public grave Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Reeves relatives represented respectability rites rituals sense sick significance social spiritual stillbirth story suggests Tape University Press Victorian whilst widow woman women workhouse working-class culture