Description
Book SynopsisIn this collection, an eminent group of cultural historians have explored 'the kiss' using a wide range of evidence. By analyzing 'the kiss' and its position - embedded as it is as part of our culture - it shows how history can use small gestures to take us to big issues concerning ourselves and others, the past and the present
Trade Review"'An eloquent and stimulating exercise in cultural history. Here is assembled an accessible, lucid and thought-provoking set of essays from prominent young scholars in their fields.' Philip Carter, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography"
Table of ContentsIntroduction - Karen Harvey
Part I – Worship and ritual
1. The kiss of peace in the German Reformation - Craig Koslofsky
2. The osculum infame: heresy, secular culture and the image of the witches’ Sabbath - Jonathan Durrant
Part II – Ambiguity and transgression
3. Lawful kisses? Sexual ambiguity and platonic friendship in England c. 1660–1720 - Helen Berry
4. Adulterous kisses and the meanings of familiarity in early modern Britain - David M. Turner
5. The kiss of life in the eighteenth century: the fate of an ambiguous kiss - Luke Davidson
Part III – Power and Intimacy
6. Kisses for votes: the kiss and corruption in eighteenth-century English elections - Elaine Chalus
7. Illness and impact: the mistress of the house and the governess - Carole Williams
8. ‘Kiss me, Hardy’: The dying kiss in the First World War trenches - Santanu Das
Afterword - Keith Thomas
