Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

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Co Requisite Comment

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Aims

Histories of crime and criminals traditionally stop after execution. This ignores a range of sources and debates looking at where criminal corpses went if they were denied burial as a further punishment. This module looks at the history of post-mortem punishment in Britain, c.1752-1900, focusing on the journeys of the bodies of convicted criminals from courtrooms, to scaffolds, and then (after death) on to hospitals, dissection rooms, museums, and private collections. Starting with the Murder Act of 1752, we will examine how the notorious bodies and body parts of the criminal dead became part of a disturbing and frequently illegal corpse trade that drew together the judiciary, executioners, medical professionals, and workhouse officials. This subject matters because it continues to inform the modern organ/corpse trade as well as the ethics of using corpses for medical knowledge/experimentation. Students will be asked to frame these practices in the context of Elias’s “civilising process” thesis. This module will place an emphasis on the wide and rich variety of primary sources about the criminal dead, including court records, folklore and superstition, images, ballads, and material/medical collections.

Outline Of Syllabus

This module will move from cultural and medical history to the history of crime and punishment. Topics may include: The power of the criminal corpse in the medieval imagination; Early modern execution practices; Murder, law, and spectacle; Death and dissection; Bodysnatching and the illegal corpse trade; Death and poverty: the workhouse and medical knowledge; Gibbets and the criminal landscape; Dismemberment and commodity culture: the criminal corpse in pieces; The magical criminal corpse; Can you harm a dead person?: ethics and personhood; When is death?: social, medical, and legal interpretations;

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

1. That students should be able to understand the key features and chronology of post-mortem punishment in Britain and how this continues to inform popular culture, medical ethics, landscapes, and museum practices.
2. That students should be able to use multiple types of sources to understand the journeys of corpses from death and execution to other destinations.
3. That students should be able to think critically about the history of crime and punishment and the role of the medical profession in post-mortem punishment and humiliation.

Intended Skill Outcomes

Development of a capacity for critical judgement in thinking about the power of the criminal corpse in the history of medicine, museums, and magic.

Development of research skills in support of this capacity, such as: detailed and critical readings of primary sources (diaries, court records); an engagement with visual and folkloric sources of evidence (including material culture).

To improve interpretation of how museums, galleries, and other cultural and scientific institutions in Britain exhibit and curate dead bodies today.

To achieve effective oral skills of presentation and argument during seminars

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

As a special subject, aside from an in-depth understanding of the content of the module, the teaching methods, which focus on small group work, independent research and writing, relate to the core learning outcomes of supporting students in developing research skills across a wide range of sources, being able to synthesise the information they collect and form convincing and coherent arguments. Lectures will be given in person, allowing students time to digest perspectives and prepare for seminars.

Independent learning is essential to this module: students are expected to develop skills of source evaluation, critical reading and note-taking in an independent and effective manner. Seminar teaching complements these skills by allowing students the opportunity to share and debate information gathered independently. Moreover, a significant part of seminar teaching will test the development of primary source analysis.

Small group teaching will allow the students to explore ideas and patterns together in a structured way, and great emphasis will be placed on primary sources and their interpretation.

This module will also have weekly lectures, giving students detailed introduction to key debates, research questions, and sources that will help prepare them for seminars. There will be two drop-in hours also, which will assist students in their essay plans, accessing reading, discussing intellectual problems or providing other module-related support.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The case study will provide students with an opportunity to work in-depth on a particular criminal/execution, introducing them to relevant documents, sources, and approaches.

The essay will test ability to research, develop, and communicate an argument about a particular subject. This calls for both general knowledge and a detailed understanding of sources relating to the course topics.

A formative assessment, a short document analysis, will prepare students for larger tasks.

General Notes

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