bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
‘Waking in the dark’:1 Remembering incest in A Thousand Acres (1991), Exposure (1993) and Beautiful Kate (2009)
Authors: White Rebecca
Published: January 2019

During the 1990s, such inherent difficulties in recalling and expressing abuse were heightened by the so-called ‘Memory Wars’, as the Recovered Memory Movement (which advocated the validity of women’s rediscovered recollections of trauma) conflicted with the theories of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (which maintained the tendency for (misguided) therapists to implant experiences in their (generally female) patients’ minds). Working within this often volatile critical context, Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres (1991) and Kathryn Harrison’s Exposure (1993), together with Rachel Ward’s film version of Newton Thornburg’s Beautiful Kate (2009), embody the tense interplay between the ‘real’ and the reconstructed that characterises debates about incest and memory. All three texts engage with the ambiguities associated with recounting incest, not least through their status as fictions-as fabrications. Recalling and reworking the very notion of False Memory Syndrome, Smiley and Harrison reclaim and rewrite male-authored stories, implanting them with the perspectives of subjugated daughters. However, over a decade later, Rachel Ward’s Beautiful Kate presents something of a turning point, as this critically-acclaimed film marries explicitness and artistry, and, in doing so, confronts openly the memory of incest.
Appropriate or anathema? The representation of incest in children’s literature
Authors: Mills Alice
Published: January 2019

The chapter draws attention to the extreme unspeakability of incest in children’s literature and the rarity of texts either literally or symbolically dealing with the topic. It analyses Crew and Scott’s picture story book, In My Father’s Room (2000), in terms of the Bluebeard fairy tale, with close attention to ways of seeing and being seen. This disturbing text (marketed as a book for young children) plays a father’s love for his daughter, manifested in his secret story-writing, against the Bluebeard story of secrecy, multiple sexual partners and murder. The boundaries of the unspeakable in literature for children have changed markedly in the post-war era, particularly in terms of problem novels for a young adult readership; but picture story books for younger readers remain almost uniformly committed to a depiction of the loving nuclear family with mother, father and child or children, where childhood naughtiness is the worst evil that can be encountered; incestuous behaviours by a father are barely mentionable and the incestuous mother unthinkable.
Is posthuman incest possible? Science fiction and the futures of the body
Authors: Brown Alistair
Published: January 2019

In evaluating the interplay of biological and social interpretations of the incest taboo, most literary commentaries have used fiction to show how notions of incest have changed historically through the variable of culture; in these accounts, the biological body remains a constant, whilst society adapts its parameters for what counts as incest. However, science fiction introduces material embodiment itself as a variable, as it hypothesises bodies that can be altered (e.g. through genetics) or even eliminated (e.g. through virtualising the mind via a computer). Through comparing three science fiction novels, this chapter evaluates whether such changing types of embodiment will also change the way in which society approaches the incest taboo, or even remove it entirely.
‘Is’t not a kind of incest?’1 Metaphor and relation in the poetry of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath
Authors: Mundye Charles
Published: January 2019

In his selections for Tales from Ovid (1995) Hughes includes several incest narratives: ‘Myrrha’, ‘Venus and Adonis (and Atalanta)’, ‘Pygmalion’, and ‘Tereus’. In arguing that they, in addition to other ‘late’ Hughes poems, develop dialogic relationships with Plath’s earlier texts, the chapter builds upon Lynda K. Bundtzen’s observation that Hughes’s Birthday Letters (1998) is centrally informed by Ovid’s tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. Analysing the self reflexiveness of aspects of Ovidian narrative, Philip Hardie has commented upon the ‘narcissistic and incestuous relationship between author and his book.’ The complexities that Hardie outlines in Ovid’s relationship with text are extended in the chaoter to consider the relationships of the two poets, Plath and Hughes, with their own and each other’s texts. In the process of pursuing this idea across key poems by Plath and Hughes, the chapter further explores ways in which Ovidian mythology is transformed not only through translation but also through its proper and improper relation with other mythologisations and metaphorisations. These range from the Garden of Eden, and different versions of the Underworld, and return us to Shakespeare.
Avuncular ambiguity: Ethical virtue in Iris Murdoch’s The Black Prince (1973 and Simone de Beauvoir’s The Mandarins (1954)
Authors: Leeson Miles
Published: January 2019

This chapter will be twofold. Firstly an examination of the narrative place of incest within both Murdoch’s and de Beauvoir’s work and questioning the role of the ephebophilic attitudes of the central male characters to the younger, less experienced Julian Baffin (The Black Prince, 1973) and Nadine Dubreuilh (The Mandarins, 1954). Both of these texts are informed by philosophical idea of the virtuous and it seems clear that Murdoch takes much from de Beauvoir’s earlier novel. The structure of Murdoch’s work is far more relaxed and this is clearly seen in the style that Murdoch presents us with the sexual relations of the characters whereas de Beauvoir’s work aims to bring the reader to a better understanding of the underlying existentialist position. Is love debased by both Murdoch and de Beauvoir via the taboo of incest to heighten the eventual outcomes of the respective novels or does it form a signifying position that point us toward a new moral reality that developed after the Second World War? Little work has been produced relating these two authors to the other and a reassessment of their work is both timely and necessary.
Ireland’s post-crisis election
Authors: Marsh Michael , Farrell David M. , Reidy Theresa
Published: January 2019

This chapter sets the scene for the chapters that follow. We start by presenting a short background to the 2016 Irish general election – the most dramatic election in modern times and the first since Ireland’s emergence from the Great Recession. The chapter starts by describing the features of the 2016 Irish National Election Study (INES), a unique data set on Irish voter behaviour gathered by the Irish political science community (and the fourth such study since 2002). We then outline the key themes addressed in the book, relating to: changing partisan identities, issue mobilization, ideological dimensions, party system change, populism and generational effects. This is followed by an overview of each of the chapters.
Mining the ballot: Preferences and transfers in the 2016 election
Authors: Cunningham Kevin
Published: January 2019

This chapter 2 makes use of mock ballot data gathered in an exit poll of voters as they were leaving the polling station. This allows a unique analysis of voting behaviour in Ireland’s unusual single transferable vote electoral system. The chapter examines the stability in first preference voting behaviour in 2016 and how this has changed since before the financial crisis. The chapter also explores the patterns of lower preferences and what they might mean for the party system. Finally, it addresses whether preferences mattered in terms of the number of seats a party won in 2016. The analysis shows that the erosion of party allegiances that were so evident in the 2011 election have continued. Even though the worst of the financial crisis had abated, large numbers of voters continued to switch votes from one party to another in 2016. Second, there is the intriguing finding of the emergence of two parallel party systems in terms of the transfer of voter preferences, with voters on the right transferring votes between the main established parties while those on the left transferring between non-established parties.
Party identification in the wake of the crisis: A nascent realignment?
Authors: Costello Rory
Published: January 2019

This chapter presents the first dedicated study of party attachment in Ireland in the wake of the economic crisis. Previous research shows that party identification has historically been an important factor in Irish voting behaviour, though – much like in other democracies – it began to decline from the 1980s onwards. This chapter examines how party attachment has evolved in recent elections. The core question it seeks to answer is whether the electoral turbulence in 2011 and 2016 was simply a symptom of a fundamentally dealigned electorate, or whether we are witnessing a realignment in Irish politics. In other words, has the number of floating voters increased in the wake of the crisis, or have people begun to form new party attachments that are likely to shape elections in the future? The analysis shows that while party attachments were ruptured in 2011 (most notably so in the case of Fianna Fáil), in 2016, by contrast, partisanship increased, and there were some interesting trends among young voters in particular, with many of them beginning to form new allegiances.
Why did the ‘recovery’ fail to return the government?
Authors: Marsh Michael
Published: January 2019

This chapter seeks to explain a significant puzzle of the 2016 election. There is now a very extensive literature linking economic performance with the electoral performance of government parties, with the relationship being a positive one. The 2016 election was an unusual illustration of a government being punished despite being able to point to a record of very significant economic growth and rapidly falling unemployment as Ireland’s recovery from the economic crash and bailout made it such a good example of the success of ‘austerity’ policies. Drawing on many studies that argue for certain contingencies in the relationship, this chapter explores a number of ways in which the good economy-government returned to office relationship went wrong. A key finding, contrary to general tendencies in the literature on economic voting, is that ‘pocketbook’ considerations were very significant in determining how voters felt about the government parties. The chapter offers some reasons why the Irish case is unusual and also questions the theoretical bases on which ‘pocketbook’ voting is downplayed in the economic voting literature.
Party or candidate?
Authors: Courtney Michael , Weeks Liam
Published: January 2019

This chapter examines the significance of candidates in Irish elections. The act of voting is often judged to be party-centred, but in Ireland it is generally seen as taking place through the prism of candidates: parties select their candidates with care to take account of that; candidate-centred behaviour is also shown by the large and growing number of independents elected in recent Irish elections – in record numbers in 2016. The importance of party vs. candidate has been examined in previous studies: this chapter brings the discussion up to date for 2016. The financial crisis had a number of political impacts, and one was to increase the importance of party vis-à-vis candidate in 2011. This was because national issues, that parties are more capable of dealing with than individual candidates, became of greater importance. With the gradual recovery of the Irish economy in the latter half of the tenure of the Fine Gael-Labour coalition, this chapter considers whether this altered the dynamics of party and candidate. The analysis shows that voters have returned to the more familiar habit of candidate-centred ballot choices, though significant party-centred behaviour persists.
Political fragmentation on the march: Campaign effects in 2016
Authors: Reidy Theresa , Suiter Jane
Published: January 2019

This chapter concentrates on when voters make their voting decisions paying particular attention to the campaign period. It starts by arguing that knowing when decisions are made is a vital part of understanding how elections work. The evidence presented demonstrates that a growing proportion of voters report making their final vote choice during election campaigns. Modern election campaigns with their manifesto launches, party leader debates and intense scrutiny of opinion polls matter a great deal. These campaigns work by raising awareness of new parties and candidates and providing vital information on the policy positions of competing actors. The analysis reveals that they are decisive in shaping voter decisions. Young people, women and urban voters are more likely to arrive at their final vote choice during the campaign period and importantly, voters who decide during the campaign are also more likely to have changed their preference from the previous election. These findings have important implications for the political system. They provide further evidence of the challenges parties face in building long term allegiance among their voters. Furthermore, it is also clear that election results may become more unpredictable as larger proportions of voters arrive at their final decision close to election day, making early campaign opinion polls more problematic as predictors of final outcomes.
The impact of gender quotas on voting behaviour in 2016
Authors: McElroy Gail
Published: January 2019

In 2016 Ireland joined over fifty countries worldwide in the adoption of candidate gender quotas, and it became the first case of a country doing so under the single transferable vote electoral system. Its impact was evident from the dramatic rise in the number of women candidates fielded in this election – 163, as compared to 86 in 2011. This chapter builds on previous research of the Irish case to assess whether the use of gender quotas had any impact on voters’ attitudes towards women candidates. The analyses of INES data in previous elections found no evidence of voter prejudice against female candidates. There could be reason to expect that might change in the light of gender quotas. The introduction of the quota in 2016 was a significant ‘shock’ to the system: parties were forced to find a large number of women candidates very quickly, so the recruitment pool was likely to have more ‘average’ women in it. Given this context, the chapter tests for true bias amongst the Irish electorate. The analysis reveals little evidence of this on the whole, apart from the slight exception of Fianna Fáil, whose supporters revealed some male bias. Apart from that partial exception, the findings generally are consistent with previous studies: what matters most is how well the candidate is known, and therefore it is incumbency that is the main factor, not the sex of the candidate.
Popularity and performance? Leader effects in the 2016 election
Authors: Quinlan Stephen , O’Malley Eoin
Published: January 2019

This chapter addresses the importance of leadership effects in 2016. It assesses the impact of the leaders of the four main parties (Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour and Sinn Féin) in influencing the vote for their parties. Overall, the chapter finds some evidence that party leadership mattered in this election, but not a lot. The Fianna Fáil leader, Micheál Martin, was the most popular of the leaders yet this did not translate into significant additional votes for his party. By contrast, the leaders of Fine Gael (Enda Kenny) and Sinn Féin (Gerry Adams), though less popular, were better at influencing the turnout of their base of supporters.
The myth of weakness: legislative management
Authors: Peacock Timothy Noël
Published: January 2019

This chapter reconsiders the challenges of legislative management and parliamentary defeats faced by the leadership and Whips of both Government and Opposition. It is shown how often-forgotten conflicts in Parliament were fundamental in shaping the 1970s Minority Governments, including a confrontation over the Queen’s Speech in 1974 and the dispute over the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Bill in 1976. Investigation of both parties’ approaches to potential institutional reforms highlight the multifaceted nature of their strategic discourses: the prospect of proxy or electronic voting in the Commons; the use of pre-legislative referenda to pass Devolution Bills; the handling of potential rebels through such means as the judicious use of confidence votes; and the methods employed to deal with defeats inflicted on Labour by the House of Lords. More radical strategies considered include the paradox of Governments deliberately seeking to engineer their own defeat on legislation in Parliament.
The myth of coalition: the Lib–Lab Pact
Authors: Peacock Timothy Noël
Published: January 2019

This chapter reconsiders the Pact between Labour and the Liberals from 1977 to 1978, showing previously hidden agendas. Declassified records that were originally not supposed to be retained provide especially interesting insights into internal debates regarding the Pact, including that of a special Strategy Cabinet at Chequers in the summer of 1977, as well as Callaghan and Steel’s meetings discussing strategy and the challenges of minority government. A particular focus of this chapter is the often overlooked renewal of the Pact after 3 months, showing alternative options considered by Labour, such as a monthly deal with the Liberals or different formal arrangements with other parties. While it has often been assumed that the Opposition were staunchly against coalitions and pacts, the Conservatives’ response to the Pact was more complex, as was their exploration of potential interparty deals.
The myth of exclusivity: informal interparty cooperation
Authors: Peacock Timothy Noël
Published: January 2019

This chapter reveals the important day-to-day legislative battles usually neglected in favour of headline-grabbing Bills, documenting Labour’s engagement with other types of informal cooperation during the Lib-Lab Pact of 1977 to 1978, and tracing the Conservatives’ efforts to deal with other parties. At times during the Pact when Liberal cooperation seemed unforthcoming, internal Government debates highlight Labour’s consideration of ad hoc deals with the Ulster Unionists and SNP to pass critical legislation. The Opposition approach to informal interparty cooperation shows less visible facets of their relations with the Liberals, and their efforts to gain support from smaller parties including the UUP.
The myth of binary choice: electoral timing
Authors: Peacock Timothy Noël
Published: January 2019

As a direct result of the state of minority government, both main parties in 1970s Britain, contrary to popular perceptions, conducted extensive planning for an election being called across a range of different dates. This chapter reveals the evolving strategic dialogues through internal papers, including Callaghan ordering the preparation of contingency plans from 1977 onwards, in the event of an unexpected major legislative defeat and forced election. At the same time, it examines the wide-ranging efforts by the Conservatives to anticipate and plan for possible election dates. The chapter also addresses, in depth, the subject of electoral timing, which has generally been confined to brief discussions within overarching political histories or concise references in works on election campaigns.
Myths and secret plans: future minority governments/coalitions
Authors: Peacock Timothy Noël
Published: January 2019

This chapter reveals Labour’s, and especially the Conservatives’, embryonic secret plans for future minority or coalition governments during the 1970s, devised in response to the possible absence of an overall majority in a general election. Both main parties considered or rejected wide-ranging proposals, from pre-electoral pacts to reforms aimed at facilitating minority or coalition government. Some of the new sources explored include Callaghan’s personal reflections on post-electoral strategy following a meeting with Steel in 1978, and papers from his political advisers, setting out starting points for prospective post-electoral coalition negotiations. Discussion of declassified Opposition research papers shows even more radical possibilities under consideration, whether the prospect of the Conservatives making a coalition deal with the UUP, SNP, or even a Grand Coalition with Labour.
The radicalism of ethnomethodology
Authors: Hammersley Martyn
Published: January 2019

This book sketches the history, and outlines the character, of ethnomethodology, a distinctive approach to the study of the social world that emerged in U.S. sociology in the 1950s and 1960s.It examines one of its main sources, the phenomenology of Alfred Schutz, and its similarities to and differences from the work of Goffman. In addition, there is an assessment of its relationship to sociology and other disciplines, and its central principles are interrogated in detail. Attention is also given to its influence on social research methodology.
On the disciplinary status of ethnomethodology
Authors: Hammersley Martyn
Published: January 2019

The disciplinary status of ethnomethodology is uncertain. It has been presented as a radical internal reform movement, aimed at re-specifying the focus of sociology; as an ‘alternate’ or supplement to it; as a discipline in its own right; or as a source of hybrid studies that complement various forms of practice. The cogency of each of these positions is considered. It is argued that ethnomethodology’s critique of social science, while salutary, seems to imply abolition rather than reform; and the proposal of its complementary relationship to conventional social science leaves open the question of why such a supplement is required. As regards ethnomethodology as a discipline, there are strong grounds for claiming that conversation analysis has provided a significant cumulative development of knowledge, but there are questions about whether its ethnomethodological character was essential to, or even compatible with, this. The ethnomethodological tradition of ‘studies of work’ has been less successful in this respect, and while it has made a practical contribution to some fields, once again it is not clear that this stems from the ethnomethodological character of the investigations. In conclusion, I suggest that the ambiguous status of ethnomethodology is built into its very nature.
The influence of ethnomethodology on qualitative research methods
Authors: Hammersley Martyn
Published: January 2019

This chapter considers the influence of ethnomethodology on qualitative research methodology, one of the main areas of mainstream social science where it has had an impact. The reception of Cicourel’s (1964) book Method and Measurement in Sociology is discussed, and also how conversation analysis shaped the work of many discourse analysts and some ethnographers. Cicourel’s argument is outlined: that sociology needs to be re-founded methodologically on an empirical theory that respects the complex and contingent character of human action and communication, along lines suggested by ethnomethodology. His early work encouraged the rise of qualitative research and reflexive attention to the processes by which data are produced; though these developments often tended to go in directions that were at odds with his conception of rigorous analysis. Later, conversation analysis encouraged the use of electronic recordings and transcriptions as data, raised doubts about the traditional uses of interviews, and encouraged the micro-analysis of patterns of social interaction. Furthermore, like Cicourel’s work, it facilitated the spread of social constructionism. It is argued that these effects have been beneficial in many respects but more negative in others.
Conclusion
Authors: Hammersley Martyn
Published: January 2019

This chapter begins by summarising what have been identified in the book as the main principles guiding ethnomethodological work: rigorous analysis, meaning as indexical, reflexive, and accountable; the socially constituted character of the world; capturing the phenomenon, its haeccicity; an appreciative stance; naturalism; foundationalism. While these are open to different interpretations and by no means uncontested, they have influenced much ethnomethodological work and the rationales presented for it. There is then a discussion of the problems associated with these principles, as they relate to ethnomethodology’s criticisms of conventional sociology and the alternative form(s) of work it proposes. A series of antinomies that appear to be intrinsic to ethnomethodology are identified. The chapter concludes with an assessment of the prospects for resolving the debates between ethnomethodologists and conventional sociologists.
Introduction
Authors: Appleby David J. , Hopper Andrew
Published: January 2019

The introduction surveys the historical and historiographical contexts which underpin and link the various chapters in Battle-Scarred, before outlining the questions and topics covered in the chapters. By adumbrating trends in military historiography and the history of early modern medicine, the editors highlight how the contributors have utilised potential synergies between these two sub-disciplines in order to make a series of significant contributions to the study of military medicine and war-related welfare. The chapters are arranged in three sections: the first section considers attitudes towards the bodies of the slain and efforts to control epidemic disease in civil-war garrisons; the second brings together professional, political and literary aspects of military medicine; whilst the third explores the complex relationships between war, societal culture, welfare and memorialisation. The editors argue that by examining the myriad ways in which English and Scottish people at various levels of society responded to the trauma and stress of civil war, the volume will help foster a more rounded approach to military history, and a sounder grasp of the historical origins of modern British attitudes towards war-related institutional care.
Battlefields, burials and the English Civil Wars
Authors: Atherton Ian
Published: January 2019

Twentieth-century practices of battlefield preservation construct war graves as sites of memory and continuing commemoration. Such ideas, though they have led archaeologists in a largely fruitless hunt for mass graves, should not be read back into the seventeenth century. Hitherto, little attention has been paid to the practices of battlefield burial, despite the suggestion that the civil wars were proportionately the bloodiest conflict in English history. This chapter analyses the evidence for the treatment of the dead of the civil wars, engaging with debates about the nature and preservation of civil-war battlefields, and the social memory of the civil wars in the mid and later seventeenth century. It concludes that ordinary civil-war soldiers were typically excluded from parish registers as a sign that they were branded as social outcasts in death.
The third army: wandering soldiers and the negotiation of parliamentary authority, 1642–51
Authors: Appleby David J.
Published: January 2019

Historians have long been interested in vagrancy during the early modern period, and the treatment meted out to travellers by local officials. However, despite the fact that so many vagrants were conscripted for military service, little work has been done on how they fared during the British Civil Wars. The closely-related topic of ‘wandering soldiers’ remains largely unexplored, despite the fact that they featured prominently in early modern ‘rogue’ literature. Demobilised veterans and deserters did not simply go home, not least because large numbers of conscripts, being unskilled and unmarried, had little reason to do so. The chapter investigates the scale, complexity and political significance of the problems which resulted, and why, given the fact that such individuals were potentially far more dangerous than normal vagrants, the moral panics of earlier decades were not repeated.
‘The deep staines these Wars will leave behind’: psychological wounds and curative methods in the English Civil Wars
Authors: Peters Erin
Published: January 2019

This chapter examines the public narration, in print, of forms of psychological disability brought on by the lingering effects of combat trauma and memories of fear among soldiers and civilians during and after the English Civil Wars. It demonstrates that a popular understanding of the disfiguring and disabling nature of psychological damage developed and discusses the curative methods by which people attempted to treat invisible wounds. Finally, this chapter argues that contemporary responses to the disabling nature of psychological trauma demonstrate a cognisance of the therapeutic value of attempting to construct trauma narratives.
‘So necessarie and charitable a worke’: welfare, identity and Scottish prisoners-sof-war in England, 1650–55
Authors: Langley Chris R.
Published: January 2019

This chapter examines how the leadership of the Kirk of Scotland organised charitable collections for soldiers imprisoned in Tynemouth Castle and Durham after the Battle of Dunbar in September 1650. In the midst of the English invasion and subsequent occupation of Scotland, ministers in Edinburgh distributed letters across the country urging parishes to donate money to support the prisoners. Parishes responded enthusiastically. This chapter shows how ministers used the galvanising effect of this charitable scheme as a way to heal ruptures within the Kirk and the Scottish political landscape. Calls to help Scottish prisoners in England did not refer to the prisoners’ previous political affiliation or the contentious position of Charles II in Scottish political discourse. The Kirk’s charitable ventures were tremendously effective at gathering financial aid but they also contributed to a wider political debate about what it meant to be a good, loyal, Covenanter.
Conclusion
Authors: Appleby David J. , Hopper Andrew
Published: January 2019

The conclusion summarises the achievements of the volume’s chapters, and how they provide a powerful reminder that the consequences and human costs of war do not end with treaties and peace settlements, but linger for generations afterwards. It stresses the scale of the numbers injured and the increased importance of medical personnel as a result of the wars. It points the way to forthcoming research that will be done on pension records, and reflects that the seventeenth century still has much to teach us today about the provision of medical care and military welfare.
The Grand National Consolidated Trades’ Union, 1833–1834: class and conflict in the early British labour movement
Authors: Siméon Ophélie
Published: January 2019

This chapter re-examines the GNCTU’s emergence, workings and historical significance through a look at its divisions. As barometers of social relations, they reveal the nature, structure and purposes of political movements, and as such, they are a powerful tool to move beyond the teleogical assumptions that have plagued the study of early socialism. In 1833-34, the GNCTU aimed to unite all trades in the country and secure workers’ labour control, from production processes to fair wages and access to equitable markets. Building on growing claims for national union among the British working classes, and under the chairmanship of Robert Owen (1771-1858) the GNCTU attracted strong popular support from the spring of 1834, but was torn apart by internal rivalry between moderate, orthodox Owenites opposed to any kind of violent action, and more radical members. Historians have seen the GNCTU at best as a missed opportunity for trade unionism, at worst as a diversion of labour’s alleged true goals through the collusion with Owen’s ‘utopian’ socialism, two conceptions this chapter seeks to challenge.
The struggle for control of the Durham Miners’ Association, 1890s–1915*
Authors: Mates Lewis H.
Published: January 2019

This chapter addresses the complex interplay of disunities on three main levels; intra-organisational, inter-organisational and between labour organisations and spontaneous working-class protests. It does so by examining the struggle for control of the well-established and influential Durham Miners’ Association’ as a case study. It firstly considers the historiographical debates and the applicability of the ‘leaders vs. led’ model to disunities within the union from the 1890s-1910. The focus then turns to spontaneous protest in relation to the mass unofficial striking and rioting that emerged with changed shift systems as part of the implementation of the eight hour day in 1910. Finally, it considers seven distinct forms of disunity that, taken together, show how a generally younger cohort of more radical socialists were able to emerge from the trauma of 1910 to build a mass movement around the miners’ minimum wage. It allowed them to undermine the Liberal DMA leaders on the one hand and outflank the syndicalists on the other.
Contested coordinator: the Hull Trades Council, 1872–1914*
Authors: Béliard Yann
Published: January 2019

Founded in 1872, the Hull Trades Council, like its counterparts in other towns and cities, was created to unite the efforts of trade-union activists pertaining to different industries. Yet its unifying vocation did not prevent it from internal conflicts. This chapter seeks to identify the diverging factors at the root of those conflicts, from the Trades Council’s origins to 1914, to understand the way the question of working-class unity was debated, and how those conceptions changed over time. The chapter illuminates the role of Trades Councils in general in the growth of class-consciousness, the possibilities they offered to encourage a kind of proletarian unity different from the one elaborated in the parliamentary milieu, as well as the obstacles that left-wingers had to face in their attempts to build that unity. The Hull scenario, although it shows that Trades Council activists often displayed more imagination, initiative and firmness than national leaders, also makes clear how difficult it was to overcome at the local level the powerful tendencies that went contrary to their efforts at the broader national or even international levels.
Domestic servants and the labour movement, 1870s–1914
Authors: Clark Anna
Published: January 2019

Between the 1870s and 1914, there was no occupation with a higher proportion of women workers than domestic service. Female servants, however, faced the problem that many working-class people, including most socialists and trade unionists, did not see them as members of the working class. Refusing to take for granted the servants' proverbial deference and lack of class-consciousness, this chapter examines the numerous ways in which domestic servants tried to overcome the barrier separating them from the organised labour movement. Servants were not as isolated as one might think from other working-class people. Physical proximity with employers could actually fuel class resentment, and in comparing themselves to animals, slaves and machines, the servants signaled their commonality with the rest of the working class. The chapter also focuses on some of the servants' attempts to form unions of their own, in particular in Dundee and London. Through their obstinacy servants eventually gained inclusion in workers’ compensation and health insurance legislation between 1906 and 1913. This study of a long-neglected branch of the British proletariat suggests that the working class cannot be understood only in terms of industrial wage labourers and conventional trade union organisation.
The decline of revolutionary pragmatism and the splintering of British communism in the 1980s
Authors: Tranmer Jeremy
Published: January 2019

The 1980s are often remembered as a period of divisions and splits in the Labour Party. However, it was not the only part of the British labour movement to experience this type of problem since the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was also concerned. Like the Labour Party, it was divided over how to react to the political successes of the Conservatives and the rapid decline of traditional industries. But its internal difficulties also resulted from a number of factors which were specific to the CPGB itself. This chapter contends that a greater understanding of these factors can be achieved by developing a modified version of Nina Fishman’s concept of ‘revolutionary pragmatism’ and applying it to British Communism in the 1980s. It will become apparent that during this decade the very framework within which most Communists acted was challenged and undermined but not successfully replaced.
Re-framing the debate on breakaway trade unions in an era of neoliberalism
Authors: Evans David
Published: January 2019

Breakaway unions have been a feature of labour organisation since the dawn of trade unionism. Despite this long history, the historiography of the subject remains undeveloped. The process of breaking away from an established union and setting up a rival organisation can be triggered by a range of impulses and inducements, fostered by both progressive and reactionary forces. On one level they can be considered a product of intra-union conflict, but a fuller understanding comes from viewing breakaways in the context of the broader economic and political circumstances in which they are embedded. The systematic remapping of the political and industrial relations landscape during the neoliberal epoch has brought into question the pluralist assumptions that have traditionally underpinned the notion of breakaway unions. Building from a historically-contingent approach, this chapter contends that the ideological onslaught unions have faced since the 1980s has encouraged division among union members and the breakaways that have emerged have generally given voice to a more moderate approach, sometimes couched in a ‘non-political’ narrative. In shining a light on the reasons behind these ideologically-motivated breakaways, this chapter contributes to the knowledge of this important but neglected area of trade union history.
English teachers’ unions since 2010: ‘a teachers’ lobby divided against itself’?1
Authors: Beauvallet Anne
Published: January 2019

This chapter deals with the three largest teachers’ unions (NUT, NASUWT and ATL) in England from 2010 to 2017 through key issues such as pay, pensions, working conditions, inspections, the curriculum, tests, performance tables and school reforms. Contrary to ATL, NUT and NASUWT have long had links with the left and the Labour Party. The 2015 Labour manifesto was disappointing for these unions and although Corbyn’s leadership has offered some hope it has not yet ushered in a new era in their relationships. Since 2010, there has been greater activism among teachers’ unions but there has also been a relative lack of ideological consensus among them, particularly on pensions and on alternative provision for inspections and tests. ATL and NUT had just merged at the time of writing but professional unity is still some way off since the NASUWT has been unwilling to follow the trend.
The conflicting loyalties of the Scottish Labour Party
Authors: Simpkins Fiona
Published: January 2019

The legitimacy of Scottish Labour as a party representative of the Scottish people has been called into question for much of its recent history, not only by disgruntled members of the Scottish electorate and political commentators, but also by Labour members and leaders themselves. Although there have been recent moves towards a more autonomous Scottish Labour Party, the post-devolution period for Labour has been marked overall by the difficulties entailed by the paradoxical centralisation of the organisation and structure of the party in a decentralised political environment where the constitutional issue has become the main political divide. This chapter therefore seeks to examine the current soul-searching crisis experienced by Scottish Labour through the analysis of the party’s experience of devolution in light of the two contradictory forces exerted by a traditionally centralised party in a unitary polity on the one hand and an overarching constitutional debate in a devolved environment on the other hand.
The ‘movementisation’ of the Labour Party and the future of labour organising
Authors: Avril Emmanuelle
Published: January 2019

Drawing from political science and organisational studies, but also from social movement analysis, this chapter examines the current terms of the debate on the future of Labour organising and tracks the emergence of hybrid forms of political parties with emphasis now placed on social movement activities alongside traditional election campaigning. This process of ‘movementisation’ is couched by some in optimistic terms as a way to reconnect the party with civil society, while others point on the contrary to the dangers such an evolution may entail, arguing that radicalisation will alienate the party further from the interests of the wider electorate. The analysis starts with some methodological considerations, continues with a presentation of Labour supporting groups and movements, with particular focus on the most recent one – Momentum – and then leads to an appraisal of the impact which this process is having on the structure and mobilising power of the Labour party.
Introduction: travelling images
Authors: Dahlgren Anna
Published: January 2019

The introduction expands on the rationale, aim and layout of the book. It also the develops the core concepts of the book, such as image, art world, borderlands, and image ecology. The notion ‘art world’ emphasizes that the distinctions between art and non-art are constructed by diverse agents and institutions. Moreover the term ‘borderlands’ is used to defy the idea that there is a definite demarcation or border between what is ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ of the art world. The term image ecology serves as a metaphor for a desire to understand the interrelationships of things such as the nature of change, adaption and community and as a way to locate how and why images operate in certain ‘environments’ or systems of meaning. Finally the introduction posits the book in the long tradition of image studies and also in recent development within media studies, particularly studies on mediatization and media archaeology.
Introduction: entrails and digestion in the eighteenth century
Authors: Barr Rebecca Anne , Kleiman-Lafon Sylvie , Vasset Sophie
Published: January 2019

This chapter discusses the ideas and themes underpinning the volume, contextualizing the importance of the gastric area in literary and medical culture, and more widely in the cultural imaginary of the eighteenth-century. It discusses the various ways in which stomach disorders, digestive motions, and belly-centred conceptions of the self and society complicate notions of the Enlightenment. Using examples from artisanal diaries, from scientific experiments, and from eighteenth-century novels, the chapter contextualizes and introduces the main themes of the volume: from revolutionary art’s visualizations of the viscera, to carnivalesque scatologies, to medical conceptions of the function of the stomach, and the city as bodily organism.
Digesting in the long eighteenth century
Authors: Miller Ian
Published: January 2019

This essay investigates the emergence and evolution of philosophical and scientific inquiries into the nature of human digestion in the long eighteenth century. It suggests that shifting perspectives on digestion encouraged deep anxieties to form around the gut. Ultimately, these concerns underpinned a new set of therapeutic regimes designed to safeguard both dietary and bodily health.
Sawney’s seat: the social imaginary of the London bog-house c.1660–c.1800
Authors: Jenner Mark
Published: January 2019

Contemporary culture often works with a toilet-training model of history. This popular version of the past dismisses the pre-modern privy as an epitome and symbol of the era’s supposed hygienic backwardness. Surveying court depositions, medical texts and scatological satires, this chapter challenges these assumptions. It reconstructs the ways in which access to such toilet facilities in late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century London shaped the use of public space in classed and gendered ways, analyses the ambiguous and provisional forms of privacy afforded by the house of office, and examines how the image of the privy offered satirists ways to discuss the transience of print culture and the public sphere.
Eighteenth-century paper: the readers’ digest
Authors: Junqua Amélie
Published: January 2019

The consumption of paper within the social body is the focus of the chapter. Using paper in the eighteenth-century is as the act of eating, providing fuel and nourishment, but also discarding waste, that in turns produces yet more lucrative materials. Paper evidences the movement of commerce in society, the passing of matter through the huge body of the “commonwealth.”
‘Words have no smell’: faecal references in eighteenth-century French théâtre de société
Authors: Ruimi Jennifer
Published: January 2019

During the eighteenth century, society theatre saw the emergence of forms that evaded censorship. Many of these works break with the rules of classical propriety and freely evoke the lower body, both the belly and its excremental waste. These references have a clear carnivalesque dimension, but this chapter argues that they also have wider aesthetic and ideological implications.
Desire, disgust and indigestibility in John Cleland’s Memoirs of a Coxcomb
Authors: Barr Rebecca Anne
Published: January 2019

This essay analyses Cleland’s Memoirs of a Coxcomb (1754) alongside his idiosyncratic medical tracts Institutes of Health (1761) and Phisiological Reveries (1765). It explores the importance of disgust in Cleland’s representations of desiring (and desirable) bodies and the contradictory impulses produced by smell, skin and contamination, the mouth and ingestion. It argues that negative affects in Coxcomb are a symptom of embodied subjectivity. Analysing the novel’s notorious tableau of adult breastfeeding, it shows how Cleland’s mobilization of taste and distaste diagnoses the latent perversity of inter-subjective appetites.
Rotund bellies and double chins: Hogarth’s bodies
Authors: Ogée Frédéric
Published: January 2019

In his choice of subjects as in his painting technique, William Hogarth’s rendering of ‘life’ is remarkable for its tangible physicality. Be it for the materiality of its settings or for the variety of human characters, his pictures try to offer some kind of total ‘show’, with a view to representing Nature ‘as it is’ and in action, in opposition to the rarefied delusions of ‘high’ art which tended to show it as it ought to be, and ‘abstracted’. While some forms were certainly more ‘polite’ than others, a true representation of mankind had to allow for the presence of all its specimens. By composing ‘modern history paintings’ in which the most elegant forms converse with the plainest lines, Hogarth endowed variety with a new epistemological and aesthetic status that meant the inclusion of the ones and of ‘the others’. In all his pictures, it is always the human body which, from painful distortions to graceful curves, endows his art with its textural, formal and rhythmic qualities. Hogarthian beauty and grace, far from being abstract concepts, emerge as transient, “living”, physical phenomena, apprehended by the beholder through visual representations of the bodies’ natural and ‘peculiar’ movements.