Ultimate Witnesses: The Visual Culture of Death, Burial and Mourning in Famine Ireland

Niamh Ann Kelly

Ultimate Witnesses: The Visual Culture of Death, Burial and Mourning in Famine Ireland
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Quinnipiac University Press
Country
United States
Published
1 September 2017
Pages
48
ISBN
9780997837469

Ultimate Witnesses: The Visual Culture of Death, Burial and Mourning in Famine Ireland

Niamh Ann Kelly

The devastation of disease, the pace of death and fears of contagion not only altered the practices of mourning and burial during the calamitous height of the Famine, but have also shaped its visual representation and ongoing patterns of remembrance.Paintings and illustrations reflect on aspects of pre-famine conventions around death, burial and mourning, which drew on a culturally rich and complex range of Christian and Celtic pagan traditions. Later, famine-era images and objects reveal some of the distressing modifications to mortuary and funerary practices during the famine years. Since then, photographic archives, art works, monuments, memorial parks, cemeteries and unmarked burial grounds provide spaces for remembrance across the landscape of Ireland where visitor engagement is informed by competing forces of historical and touristic practices. This folio encompasses a cross-section of representational forms and strategies of remembrance of the Famine dead who were, to borrow Giorgio Agamben’s term, the ultimate witnesses to that tragic period. Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac University publishes Famine Folios, a unique resource for students, scholars and researchers, as well as general readers, covering many aspects of the Famine in Ireland from 1845-1852 - the worst demographic catastrophe of nineteenth-century Europe. The essays are interdisciplinary in nature, and make available new research in Famine studies by internationally established scholars in history, art history, cultural theory, philosophy, media history, political economy, literature and music.

This item is not currently in-stock. It can be ordered online and is expected to ship in approx 4 weeks

Our stock data is updated periodically, and availability may change throughout the day for in-demand items. Please call the relevant shop for the most current stock information. Prices are subject to change without notice.

Sign in or become a Readings Member to add this title to a wishlist.