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Un-making a home: domestic murder in post-war London

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posted on 2023-06-08, 23:00 authored by Alexa NealeAlexa Neale
This paper uses case files for domestic murders to examine homes in postwar London. It compares images and experiences of homes that differ according to gender, sexuality, race and class, focussing on dwellings that failed to meet contemporary popular ideals. When a home was un-made by the murder of a member of the household, the private spaces within were thrown open to police investigation, public scrutiny, and press comment. The documents and photographs left behind by these processes reveal what the homes were not, what they should have been, and what has been lost by the un-making of the home. The increased significance of home and homemaking in postwar Britain has been widely discussed across disciplines, including History and Geography. The homemaker image and her labour-saving devices, companionate marriage, and privatised suburban family are familiar features of the popular memory of the 1950s. This paper examines actual experiences of home and homemaking in this period, as revealed by evidence of their demise.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Presentation Type

  • paper

Event name

Making a Home: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Domestic Interior

Event location

University of Sussex

Event type

conference

Event date

6-8 May 2015

Department affiliated with

  • History Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • No

Legacy Posted Date

2016-10-13

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