Modules
Courses / Modules / HIST2254 Cities of the Dead: Death, Mourning and Remembrance in Modern Britain

Cities of the Dead: Death, Mourning and Remembrance in Modern Britain

When you'll study it
Semester 2
CATS points
15
ECTS points
7.5
Level
Level 5
Module lead
Jonathan Conlin
Academic year
2027-28
Module overview Aims and Objectives Syllabus Learning and Teaching Assessment
Module overview Aims and Objectives Syllabus Learning and Teaching Assessment

Module overview

Death comes to us all, yet we have become reluctant to address it. The Victorians of nineteenth-century Britain very different, with an elaborate set of rituals and conventions, referred to as Christian "art of death". Today we tend to find this unsettling, evidence of a morbid fascination, even as we admire the carefully-designed "garden cemeteries" or cities of the dead that the Victorians left behind. In this module we will explore how the Victorians understood the concept of a "good death", and how that model came under pressure around 1900 and collapsed in the wake of the First World War. In order to do this we will employ approaches taken from architectural history, gender/social history and the history of material culture. In addition to hands-on sessions in Hartley Library Special Collections handling condolence letters and mourning jewellery we will undertake site visits to a cemetery, crematorium and war shrine in Southampton. Assessments will include writing a museum label and an information board.

Linked modules

CQA has created a new module