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. |
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Page 5
... perceived greed is best encapsulated in comparisons with the Vampire.18 Much of the prejudice against the undertaker sprang from the supplementary report of sanitary commissioners into interment in towns in 1843. Authored by Edwin ...
... perceived greed is best encapsulated in comparisons with the Vampire.18 Much of the prejudice against the undertaker sprang from the supplementary report of sanitary commissioners into interment in towns in 1843. Authored by Edwin ...
Page 7
... perceived as a direct assault on the liberty and 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 ...
... perceived as a direct assault on the liberty and 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 ...
Page 21
... perceived to be at odds with an acknowledgement of decentred identities. As Patrick Joyce has argued, few members of the proletariat defined themselves in a vocabulary of class consciousness. Rather, identities were configured in ...
... perceived to be at odds with an acknowledgement of decentred identities. As Patrick Joyce has argued, few members of the proletariat defined themselves in a vocabulary of class consciousness. Rather, identities were configured in ...
Page 22
... perceived and perceived themselves as removed from a prosperous middle-class culture. This difference was written into both the external and internal representations of their cultural practices, including those surrounding death and ...
... perceived and perceived themselves as removed from a prosperous middle-class culture. This difference was written into both the external and internal representations of their cultural practices, including those surrounding death and ...
Page 28
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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
aged argued associated authorities babies BALS belief bereaved body Bolton Book born Burial Board Catholic cemetery century child claim classes coffin common concerning context corpse cost culture customs dead death deceased described desire died dying emotional especially expense experience expression families father feelings friends funeral grave grief ground History Hope hospital identity implied indicate individuals infant instance interment Jones Lancet language laying Liverpool living London loss LVRO March material meaning memory Moreover mortality mother mourning neglect neighbours noted notions observed Office Oxford parents pauper perceived perceptions poor poverty practice Reference reflected relationship relatives religious remains removal Report represented respectability responses rites rituals Roberts seems sense shared shillings sick significance social space spiritual story Street suggests Tape University Press Victorian whilst widow woman women workhouse working-class World