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Vergüenza, Vergogne, Schande, Skam and Sram: Litigating for Shame and Dishonour in Early Modern Europe
The issues of shame, blame, and culpability are scarcely studied in their historical context. Yet such study provides insights into the important contemporary dimensions associated with the perceived collapse of existing forms of punishment and the growing interest in the revival of shame punishments and restorative justice. Thus the history of shame, blame, and culpability speaks to the past history of society, culture, and law – yet it also has an important role in showing contemporary societies how past societies theorized these issues. This volume brings together a range of work by leading writers in the field and engages with the comparative dimensions of shame, blame, and culpability and their fundamentally important impact upon modern multicultural states.
Tracing the use, abuse, and negotiation of the related concepts of shame, blame, and culpability between the 17th and 20th centuries in a number of different geographical locations, this book forms a part of the movement within criminal and legal history to turn the focus away from capital and serious crime to look at the impact of lesser (and more common) criminality which has a daily impact on people’s lives. In studying the interaction of how people understand the boundaries of acceptable behaviour, the volume illustrates perceptions of crime and morality at work in previously unstudied societies at different historical junctures.