Narrative Ambiguity, Bodily Uncertainty, and Community Involvement: Infanticide in Seventeenth-Century Scotland

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dc.contributor.advisorEwan, Elizabeth
dc.contributor.authorSeale, Persephone
dc.date.accessioned2020-04-20T16:00:06Z
dc.date.available2020-04-20T16:00:06Z
dc.date.copyright2020-04
dc.date.created2020-04-03
dc.date.issued2020-04-20
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Historyen_US
dc.degree.grantorUniversity of Guelphen_US
dc.degree.nameMaster of Artsen_US
dc.degree.programmeHistoryen_US
dc.description.abstractThis thesis uses seventeenth-century infanticide cases to examine the experience of pregnancy and childbirth in early modern Scotland. Through these cases, it is revealed that the condition of pregnancy and women’s experiences of their bodies during this time were uncertain and reflected the liminality of the early modern age. Additionally, this thesis examines familial and community involvement in cases of infanticide, and argues against the commonly held notion that infanticide was a crime most often committed by women acting alone. The role of the family and the community also ties into the liminal aspects of the experience of pregnancy, as the roles played by the community in illegitimate births, infanticide, and infanticide investigations reflect the inverse of the role of the community/family in traditional, legitimate pregnancies and births. Through my examination of the seventeenth-century infanticide cases, it is revealed that there is far more nuance surrounding the act of infanticide, and the ways in which it is related to the legitimate culture of pregnancy and birth, than has previously been acknowledged in the Scottish context.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipSSHRC Master's scholarship
dc.description.sponsorshipSt. Andrew's Society of Montreal
dc.description.sponsorshipFrank Watson Travel Scholarship
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10214/17864
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Guelphen_US
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/*
dc.subjectscotlanden_US
dc.subjectearly modern Scotlanden_US
dc.subjectearly modernen_US
dc.subjectseventeenth centuryen_US
dc.subjectinfanticideen_US
dc.subjectpregnancyen_US
dc.subjectchildbirthen_US
dc.subject1600sen_US
dc.titleNarrative Ambiguity, Bodily Uncertainty, and Community Involvement: Infanticide in Seventeenth-Century Scotlanden_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
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