William Corder and the Red Barn murder
Subtitle: journeys of the criminal body
By: Shane McCorristine
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 112
ISBN-13: 9781137439383
Subjects: Murder; Case studies; Murderers; Public executions; Murder in mass media; Fame; HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain; HISTORY / Modern / 19th Century; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Criminology; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Death & Dying
Description: "On 18 May 1827 the Suffolk farmer William Corder killed and buried his lover Maria Martin in the Red Barn at Polstead. The discovery of this murder the following year set off a feeding-frenzy in which Corder became one of the most notorious villains in British history, a celebrity criminal for preachers, ballad singers, anatomists, and generations of theatre managers. The Red Barn was almost destroyed for souvenirs and relics while Corder's corpse was dissected and displayed, galvanized and scalped. This original study maps out the remarkable journey of Corder's body from dismemberment to remembrance. Rather than providing a traditional historical model, the book challenges concepts of death and execution. What does it mean for a criminal to be declared dead? How far were medical authorities and public audiences actors in the theatrical production of criminal justice? What about popular legends and dreams about criminals, about the places they haunt and the sites of their burial or display? In short, what happens to the power of the criminal once he/she has been declared 'dead' and punished?Positioned within the burgeoning field of medical humanities, McCorristine engages with current scholarship that is placing culture and power at the centre of debates surrounding criminal justice and public punishment. Death, it is clear, is not a terminus but a journey"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 103-109) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note:; title: 1. The Murder in the Red Barn; title: 2. The Criminal Body Dismembered; title: 3. The Criminal Body Remembered; title: Appendix 1: Crime, Trial, and Dismemberment; title: Appendix 2: Representations and Afterlives.