16TH CENTURY ENGLISH BROADSIDE EPITAPHS AND SHAPING OF HISTORICAL MEMORY
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2018-6-137-142
Characteristics of printed broadside epitaph are given in the article and a brief outline of its existence in the late 16th century is presented together with some notions about its place among other texts and rituals that shaped the final memory about the deceased. More consideration is given to the fact that there are genre similarities and distinctions between broadside epitaphs and literary funeral elegies of the period, elegy being more refined according to the standards of classical education and more personalized. It is shown that compared to epigraphic epitaph and funeral elegy broadside epitaph still has not got sufficient attention in historical research as a specific part of memorial literature, the article trying to fill up the gap. Resources of broadside epitaph in shaping the memory of a person are discussed, also some particular occasions of individual memorization are noted, though in general broadside epitaphs are shown as texts that were aimed to construction of communal memorization and communal solidarity. Some social, gender and national features most characteristic to depiction of the deceased in broadside funerary ballad of Elizabethan England are explored. Also the place of these features in the value system of the English society in late 16th century is shown.
Keywords: Early Modern England, social history, history of memory, broadside literature, epitaph
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Issue: 6, 2018
Series of issue: Issue 6
Rubric: FOREIGN LITERATURE
Pages: 137 — 142
Downloads: 721