HSTR316A

Death and the Afterlife in England, 1200-1750

Examines death and attitudes toward the afterlife and the supernatural from the late Middle Ages to the beginning of the modern era. Themes include the late-medieval ars moriendi and ghost stories; martyrdom of Protestants and Catholics under "Bloody Mary" and Elizabeth I; murder; attitudes toward providence and the supernatural; crime and public execution in 17th- and 18th-century London; the rise of "rational religion" and the "secularization of suicide".