Family Life, Trauma and Loss in the Twentieth Century: The Legacy of War

by Carol Komaromy, Jenny Hockey

Overview

This book uses personal memoir to examine links between private trauma and the socio-cultural approach to death and memory developed within Death Studies. The authors, two key Death Studies scholars, tell the stories that constitute their family lives. Each bears witness to the experiences of men who were either killed or traumatised during World War One and World War Two and shows the ongoing implications of these events for those left behind. The book illustrates how the rich oral history and material culture legacy bequeathed by these wars raises issues for everyone alive today. Belonging to a generation who grew up in the shadow of war, Komaromy and Hockey ask how we can best convey unimaginable events to later generations, and what practical, moral and ethical demands this brings.

Family Life, Trauma and Loss in the Twentieth Century will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including Death Studies, Military History, Research Methods, Family History, the Sociology of the Family and Life Writing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783319766010
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	05/17/2018
Edition description:	1st ed. 2018
Pages:	266
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Carol Komaromy is Visiting Research Fellow at The Open University, UK, where she has worked since 1994.

Jenny Hockey is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Table of Contents

1 Recovery, Retrieval and Healing
1.1 Reflexivity
1.2 Recovery
1.3 Our Fathers’ Deaths
1.4 Writing a Life
2 Missing Persons
2.1 Picking Up the Pieces
2.2 Selective Memory
3 Changing Perspectives on Death, Dying and Loss
4 World War One and its Transformations
4.1 A Farming Family
4.2 The Arrival of Children and War
4.3 Living with the Legacy of Conflict in Ireland
4.4 Life in the Industrialised West Midlands
5 Family Life Between the Wars: 1918–1931
5.1 The Armistice and its Aftermath
5.2 The School Magazine and the Diaries
5.3 The Pathe News Film
5.4 Family Life in the Gilmore Household
5.5 The Route to Brighton
6 War in Prospect, 1930–1939
6.1 The Great Outdoors
6.2 Leaving School, Leaving Topsham
6.3 Reading Between the Lines
6.4 The Mannings at Home
6.5 Out to Work
6.6 Mother and Son
6.7 Transitions to Adulthood (1): Sketching
6.8 Transitions to Adulthood (2): Walking
6.9 At Home in a Group
6.10 Brother and Mother
7 At Home and Abroad
7.1 War in Prospect
7.2 Living with War
7.3 Arthur on Active Service
7.4 The Italian Campaign
7.5 The Aftermath
7.6 Enlistment
7.7 Enlistment and Training for the Normandy Landings
7.8 Seven Years of Change
8 Experiencing the Horror of World War Two
8.1 The Bigger Picture
8.2 The Allied Advance
8.3 Personal Journey
9 Growing Up Post-War: All Over Now?
9.1 Home Life
9.2 Fathering
9.3 Social Life
9.4 Leaving Home
9.5 Bringing the Threads Together
9.6 The Impact of War
9.7 The End of Family Life
10 Endings and Beginnings
10.1 L’Osteria Restaurant, London
10.2 The Rutland Arms, Bakewell
10.3 Form, Content and Style
10.4 John Lewis, Birmingham
10.5 Death Studies
10.6 Journey’s End?
10.7 Legacies We Take Forward
10.8 The Personal and the Professional

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“As so much has been written about death […] this particular genre offers new scope. It is, within itself, complex, yet graspable.” (Douglas J. Davies, Durham University, UK)

“Hockey and Komaromy are two of the leading theorists of Death Studies and their extensive work in this field make this monograph not only profoundly interesting, but crucially important to the historical and sociological disciplines.” (Grace Huxford, University of Bristol, UK)

“A hugely original and significant contribution to the field of death studies and related interests in loss and trauma.” (Arnar Árnason, Aberdeen University, UK)

Editorial Reviews

Family Life, Trauma and Loss in the Twentieth Century is a rich and engaging memoir that can be accessed by all, regardless of professional background or specialty. Indeed, its wide scope means that it will appeal to anyone interested in genealogy, material culture, military and social history, as well as death studies.” (Laura Towers, Mortality, Vol. 24 (1), 2019)

From the Publisher