Gender and Mourning in 18C British Literature and Culture

In the eighteenth century, significant changes occurred in how people thought about sex, gender, and mourning. During this time, society began to see men and women as complete opposites based on their physical bodies. At the same time, attitudes towards mourning also shifted: the culture of sensibility, which emphasised emotion and empathy, gave mourning greater moral and cultural importance, and, as a result, literary genres that sublimated grief began to flourish. Sarah Frühwirths project delves into the fascinating interplay between mourning and gender in the eighteenth century. She aims to uncover how gender ideals shaped mourning practices, and, in turn, how these practices reinforced or challenged gender norms. Her study will also explore major changes in mourning customs during this period and their connections to broader historical trends, such as the culture of sensibility and ideas about melancholia. Frühwirth will look at both literary and non-literary eighteenth-century texts, as her project is based on two key assumptions: first, that both literary and non-literary texts reflect an eras dominant norms values; and second, that both literary and non-literary texts play an important role in shaping and challenging these norms. Her interdisciplinary study will include eighteenth-century British literature as well as medical, religious, philosophical, and cultural texts, such as obituaries, epitaphs, and sermons. Using methods from literary, cultural, gender, emotion, and death studies, Frühwirth aims to provide new insights into how mourning was and still is part of the cultural processes that reinforce power structures and shape societal meanings.