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 15
... deceased with a degree of intimacy . Despite the pathologising tendencies of Western medicine , grief and bereavement are increasingly defined as unique experiences : ' Grief is not a linear process with concrete boundaries but , rather ...
... deceased with a degree of intimacy . Despite the pathologising tendencies of Western medicine , grief and bereavement are increasingly defined as unique experiences : ' Grief is not a linear process with concrete boundaries but , rather ...
Page 16
... deceased and the bereaved . Notably , French anthropologist Robert Hertz ( 1907 ) argued that rites associated with death and mourning were characterised by moving the status of the dead from the realm of the living into an afterlife ...
... deceased and the bereaved . Notably , French anthropologist Robert Hertz ( 1907 ) argued that rites associated with death and mourning were characterised by moving the status of the dead from the realm of the living into an afterlife ...
Page 17
... deceased into an afterlife, whether that is a spiritual world or a secular sphere rooted in memory. Funerary rites frame a response for negotiating the challenge death poses to the individual's self-consciousness; survi- ving ...
... deceased into an afterlife, whether that is a spiritual world or a secular sphere rooted in memory. Funerary rites frame a response for negotiating the challenge death poses to the individual's self-consciousness; survi- ving ...
Page 22
... deceased , the bereaved asserted their ownership of the cadaver and ensured that it was treated with dignity and respect . Chapter 4 develops the analysis of death 82 G. Himmelfarb , Poverty and Compassion : The Moral Imagination of the ...
... deceased , the bereaved asserted their ownership of the cadaver and ensured that it was treated with dignity and respect . Chapter 4 develops the analysis of death 82 G. Himmelfarb , Poverty and Compassion : The Moral Imagination of the ...
Page 23
... deceased. Furthermore, it suggests that stereotypes of extravagant funerals and social rivalry have been exaggerated: most rites associated with the disposal of the corpse cost little and were often impro- vised. In this sense, I read ...
... deceased. Furthermore, it suggests that stereotypes of extravagant funerals and social rivalry have been exaggerated: most rites associated with the disposal of the corpse cost little and were often impro- vised. In this sense, I read ...
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