1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910299795403321

Autore

Tarlow Sarah <1967->

Titolo

Harnessing the Power of the Criminal Corpse / / by Sarah Tarlow, Emma Battell Lowman

Pubbl/distr/stampa

2018

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2018

ISBN

9783319779089

3319779087

Edizione

[1st ed. 2018.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (X, 273 p. 31 illus.)

Collana

Palgrave Historical Studies in the Criminal Corpse and its Afterlife, , 2947-6356

Classificazione

HIS015000HIS054000SCI034000SOC004000SOC026000

Disciplina

941

Soggetti

Great Britain - History

Science - History

Crime - Sociological aspects

Sociology

Social history

History of Britain and Ireland

History of Science

Crime and Society

Sociological Theory

Social History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

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.



Sommario/riassunto

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.