Harnessing the Power of the Criminal Corpse

1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-3-319-77907-2
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 273 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 3617 g

Reihe: Palgrave Historical Studies in the Criminal Corpse and its Afterlife

This open access book is the culmination of many years of research on what happened to the bodies of executed criminals in the past. Focusing on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it looks at the consequences of the 1752 Murder Act. These criminal bodies had a crucial role in the history of medicine, and the history of crime, and great symbolic resonance in literature and popular culture. Starting with a consideration of the criminal corpse in the medieval and early modern periods, chapters go on to review the histories of criminal justice, of medical history and of gibbeting under the Murder Act, and ends with some discussion of the afterlives of the corpse, in literature, folklore and in contemporary medical ethics. Using sophisticated insights from cultural history, archaeology, literature, philosophy and ethics as well as medical and crime history, this book is a uniquely interdisciplinary take on a fascinating historical phenomenon.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Battell Lowman, Emma

Tarlow, Sarah

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Geschichte der Soziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder England, UK, Irland: Regional & Stadtgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Kriminalsoziologie
• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein Rechtsgeschichte, Recht der Antike

Inhaltsverzeichnis

SECTION ONE: THE CRIMINAL CORPSE IN HISTORY.- 1. Introduction.- 2. The Power of the Criminal Corpse in the Medieval World.- 3. How was the Power of the Criminal Corpse Harnessed in Early Modern England?.- SECTION TWO: THE WORLD OF THE MURDER ACT.- 4. Murder and the Law, 1752-1832.- 5. Anatomisation and Dissection.- 6. Hanging in Chains.- SECTION THREE: THE LEGACY OF THE CRIMINAL CORPSE.- 7. Seeking the Physical Remains of the Criminal Corpse.- 8. Folk Beliefs and Popular Tales.- 9. Conclusions: Ethics, Bullet Points and Other Ways of Telling.- Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Sarah Tarlow is Professor of Historical Archaeology at the University of Leicester, UK. She has published extensively on the archaeology of death and burial, archaeological ethics, and the post-medieval archaeology of the British isles. She was PI on ‘Harnesssing the Power of the Criminal Corpse’, the research project on which this book is based.

Emma Battell Lowman is Lecturer in the History of the Americas at the University of Hertfordshire, UK, with research interests in historical narrative, connections between bodies and memory, and the use of power to shape social identity. She holds postgraduate degrees from the University of Victoria, Canada, and the University of Warwick.