Neale, Alexa Hannah Leah (2015) Un-making a home: domestic murder in post-war London. In: Making a Home: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Domestic Interior, 6-8 May 2015, University of Sussex.

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Abstract

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.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Schools and Departments:	School of History, Art History and Philosophy > History
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DA History of Great Britain > DA020 England > DA129 By period > DA300 Modern, 1485- > DA566 20th century
Depositing User:	Alexa Hannah Leah Neale
Date Deposited:	13 Oct 2016 12:28
Last Modified:	13 Oct 2016 12:28
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/57430

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