What Is Consolation? Towards a new conceptual framework

This chapter describes the three important 'strands' or 'types' of consolation: 'metaphysical and moral consolation', 'autobiographical memorialisation' and 'professionalised consolation'. These strands can be distinguished in the historical material, and their origins can be traced to different historical eras. The chapter discusses the application of the framework to selected spatial phenomena and possible limitations of the framework. Whilst autobiographical memorialisation not only allowed for attenuated residual grief but also aestheticised it, the highly elaborate cultivation of grief that was visible in the mourning rituals of the late nineteenth century must have seemed out of place and inapplicable in the face of the Great War's death toll. Practices such as the memorialisation of the deceased person's biography are well-established and by no means the unique expression of a contemporary way of life. The rise of Christianity had less of an impact on the nature of consolation than might be supposed