Barry, Elizabeth C.. (2008) From epitaph to obituary : death and celebrity in eighteenth-century British culture. International Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol.11 (No.3). pp. 259-275. ISSN 1367-8779

Abstract

This article explores the emergence of the obituary in British eighteenth-century print journalism, at a moment when the verse epitaph was in irrevocable decline. The new form of death memorial that the obituary represents reflected a changing attitude to death, and a new phase in its relationship with fame. Many of the features of the present-day phenomenon of celebrity can be identified as emerging in the eighteenth century, and we recognize all too well today the explosion of commerce and the new forms of deregulated media that produced this phenomenon. Death became 'news' in the context of the new transience and mobility of printed text, and the dead gained renown not only for historically momentous acts, or lasting works of art or intellect, but also for ephemeral skills and talents such as acting, singing, sports and eccentric feats of memory or agility. Celebrity — short-lived fame — became a feature of British society, and the untimely or dramatic death began to create as well as test this new kind of fame. The obituary plays a key role in this process, this article argues, and represents an important mechanism for introducing modern notions of fame and celebrity into British society

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