Lamenting the dead: the affective afterlife of poets' graves

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceeding with ISSN or ISBNChapterpeer-review

    Abstract

    Poets’ graves are important memorial spaces as well as sites of literary and heritage tourism. Yet, they are also spaces of emotional encounter and affective exchange with a long tradition of writers paying respect and performing rituals of homage, composition and recital – hoping to cement their own imaginative agency and burgeoning poetical identities with those of poetical forebears. This chapter explores these practices by drawing upon research into the early Victorian poetic community of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in the north-east of England. My ancestor, Robert Gilchrist (1797-1844), considered to be one of the finest and most prolific poets working in the town, was part of this vibrant community and this chapter analyses a series of laments to dead poets produced by Gilchrist and his contemporaries in ways that illuminate the complex temporalities and affective legacies of the poets’ grave. My account is interweaved with my own narrative of discovery, re-membering, and visiting, as I follow the footsteps of Gilchrist and search for material traces of my kin. The chapter details how the poets’ grave maps onto the present as I consider the multi-temporal and affective afterlife of the poets’ grave as a space of both public heritage and private meaning.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationAffective Architectures
    Subtitle of host publicationMore-Than-Representational Geographies of Heritage
    EditorsJacque Micieli-Voutsinas, Angela Person
    Place of PublicationAbingdon
    Pages151-167
    Number of pages17
    ISBN (Electronic)9780429955737
    Publication statusPublished - 21 Sept 2020

    Publication series

    NameCritical Studies in Heritage, Emotion and Affect

    Bibliographical note

    This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge/CRC Press in Affective Architectures: More-Than-Representational Geographies of Heritage on 21/09/2021, available online: https://www.routledge.com/Affective-Architectures-More-Than-Representational-Geographies-of-Heritage/Micieli-Voutsinas-Person/p/book/9780367152116

    Keywords

    • heritage
    • Affect
    • Poetry
    • death
    • memory

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