Representations of Childhood Death

Death in childhood has, until well into the 20th century, been more common than for any other age.

Surprisingly, then, despite growing interest in how death is understood in Western culture and how the bodies of different groups are treated in death, there has been no sustained study of childhood death.

This text addresses the subject with discussions which range from analyses of the ways dead and dying children are represented in folklore, ballads and funeral monuments through 17th-century diaries, fantasy fiction, horror stories and on film.