Una Mcilvenna
Biographic Data
| ID | 1594801 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Una Mcilvenna |
| GIVEN NAMES | Una |
| FAMILY NAME | Mcilvenna |
| SIGNATURE | MCILVENNA U |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Melbourne |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4798-7880 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Execution, State and Society in England, 1660–1900 , by Simon Devereaux
Death and the Senses: Introduction
Death and the Senses: Introduction. Un article de la revue Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme (Special issue: Death and the Senses in the Early Modern World) diffusée par la plateforme Érudit
Alternative Relics? The Sensory Powers of the Criminal Corpse
Across early modern and nineteenth-century Europe it was widely believed that the corpses of executed criminals had thaumaturgical powers that could miraculously cure a range of illnesses if they were touched or ingested. This article looks at how touch was the key sense involved in how the magical powers of the corpses of the condemned could transfer to the living. It argues that these beliefs were linked to a much older belief in relics, which …
Sonido De La Muerte Inminente: Las baladas de ajusticiados en Europa (siglos XVI-XIX)
Desde los albores de la imprenta se publicaron canciones sobre acontecimientos especialmente noticiosos, y las baladas sobre criminales y sus ejecuciones fueron uno de los subgéneros más populare. Su difusión oral las convertía también en un medio extraordinariamente exitoso para la recepción de las noticias: independientemente del nivel cultural, el rango social, el sexo o la edad, todo el mundo podía escuchar y entender el contenido de una bala…
Singing the News of Death: Execution Ballads in Europe 1500-1900
Les complaintes criminelles en Europe
La complainte, chanson des crimes et des peines, n’est pas un phénomène circonscrit à la France. Il est présent en Europe depuis l’Époque moderne. Cet article compare les complaintes françaises de 1870 à 1940 avec les complaintes anglaises, italiennes, allemandes et néerlandaises, afin de mettre en évidence leurs similitudes et leurs différences. L’article commence par une présentation du terme « complainte » et de ses usages à l’Époque moderne, …
Singing complaintes criminelles across Europe
The complainte, a song about crime and punishment, is not simply a French phenomenon, but has been found all over Europe since the early modern period. This article compares the French complaintes of 1870-1940 with their counterparts in English, Italian, German and Dutch to reveal European similarities as well as regional differences. Beginning with a brief discussion of the term ‘complaint’ and its usage in the early modern era, we move into the…
Singing the News of Punishment: The Execution Ballad in Europe, 1550–1900
This article explores the pan-European phenomenon of the execution ballad, songs that told the news of true crimes and their punishment by public execution. Looking at examples across nine languages, from the sixteenth through the nineteenth century, this comparison reveals that these ballads share multiple features in textual content and format: a recognisable, formulaic narrative; sensationalist and emotive language; and a conservative perspect…
History of Emotions: Where Are We
As we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the CHE, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotion (initially focusing on Europe 1100–1800 and with the late Professor Philippa Maddern as its founding Director) and the fifth anniversary of the launch of the journal Emotions: History, Culture, Society (founding Editors: Katie Barclay, Andrew Lynch, Giovanni Tarantino), it is only pertinent that we…
Object–based learning and history teaching: The role of emotion and empathy in engaging students with the past
In 2017 and 2018 historians teaching at the University of Melbourne, in collaboration with staff from the University of Melbourne’s Cultural Collections, brought an element of object-based learning to their undergraduate teaching. This article describes their pedagogical strategies in bringing material culture to a study of the past, discusses the advantages to this kind of teaching, and describes the results of a survey of students which aimed t…
Chanteurs de rue, or street singers in early modern France
The impression one tends to have about the profession of the street singer in early modern France is of one voice struggling to be heard amongst a cacophony of other ambulant sellers crying their goods for sale. This vision is encouraged by the centuries‐old genre of the ‘cris de Paris’, immortalised in verse as early as the thirteenth century. This paper outlines in greater detail the figure of the chanteur de rue in the early modern period, fro…
Ballads of Death and Disaster: The Role of Song in Early Modern News Transmission
Ballads were a primary source of information about newsworthy events in the early modern period. Their aural reception meant that they were the most accessible medium for news, cutting across all divisions of class, education, gender, age and location. This essay explores how songs presented and mediated the news of executions and disasters both natural and human-caused, and in what ways they differed from prose accounts. The unique characteristi…
When the News was Sung: Ballads as news media in early modern Europe
News-songs differ in crucial ways to the other news media of the early modern period. As a result, historians need to ask different questions of these multi-media artefacts. How did the presentation of this performative genre affect the dissemination and reception of information about events? What part do orality and aurality play in how the news was sold and received? What kind of information can ballads provide about specific news events that o…
The Power of Music: The Significance of Contrafactum in Execution Ballads
Peer-reviewed
Word versus Honor: The Case of Françoise de Rohan vs. Jacques de Savoie
This paper examines one of the most notorious scandals of sixteenth-century France. In 1557, Françoise de Rohan, a lady-in-waiting to Catherine de Medici, launched a legal battle to get the duke of Nemours, Jacques de Savoie, to recognize their orally-agreed marriage contract and formally recognize the child whom he had fathered with her. Central to Rohan’s case were not only the love-letters Nemours had written to her but also the eye-witness te…
Chanteurs de rue, or street singers in early modern France
The impression one tends to have about the profession of the street singer in early modern France is of one voice struggling to be heard amongst a cacophony of other ambulant sellers crying their goods for sale. This vision is encouraged by the centuries‐old genre of the ‘cris de Paris’, immortalised in verse as early as the thirteenth century. This paper outlines in greater detail the figure of the chanteur de rue in the early modern period, fro…
The Power of Music: The Significance of Contrafactum in Execution Ballads
Peer-reviewed
When the News was Sung: Ballads as news media in early modern Europe
News-songs differ in crucial ways to the other news media of the early modern period. As a result, historians need to ask different questions of these multi-media artefacts. How did the presentation of this performative genre affect the dissemination and reception of information about events? What part do orality and aurality play in how the news was sold and received? What kind of information can ballads provide about specific news events that o…
Word versus Honor: The Case of Françoise de Rohan vs. Jacques de Savoie
This paper examines one of the most notorious scandals of sixteenth-century France. In 1557, Françoise de Rohan, a lady-in-waiting to Catherine de Medici, launched a legal battle to get the duke of Nemours, Jacques de Savoie, to recognize their orally-agreed marriage contract and formally recognize the child whom he had fathered with her. Central to Rohan’s case were not only the love-letters Nemours had written to her but also the eye-witness te…
Word versus Honor: The Case of Françoise de Rohan vs. Jacques de Savoie
This paper examines one of the most notorious scandals of sixteenth-century France. In 1557, Françoise de Rohan, a lady-in-waiting to Catherine de Medici, launched a legal battle to get the duke of Nemours, Jacques de Savoie, to recognize their orally-agreed marriage contract and formally recognize the child whom he had fathered with her. Central to Rohan’s case were not only the love-letters Nemours had written to her but also the eye-witness te…
The Power of Music: The Significance of Contrafactum in Execution Ballads
Peer-reviewed
Ballads of Death and Disaster: The Role of Song in Early Modern News Transmission
Ballads were a primary source of information about newsworthy events in the early modern period. Their aural reception meant that they were the most accessible medium for news, cutting across all divisions of class, education, gender, age and location. This essay explores how songs presented and mediated the news of executions and disasters both natural and human-caused, and in what ways they differed from prose accounts. The unique characteristi…
When the News was Sung: Ballads as news media in early modern Europe
News-songs differ in crucial ways to the other news media of the early modern period. As a result, historians need to ask different questions of these multi-media artefacts. How did the presentation of this performative genre affect the dissemination and reception of information about events? What part do orality and aurality play in how the news was sold and received? What kind of information can ballads provide about specific news events that o…
Chanteurs de rue, or street singers in early modern France
The impression one tends to have about the profession of the street singer in early modern France is of one voice struggling to be heard amongst a cacophony of other ambulant sellers crying their goods for sale. This vision is encouraged by the centuries‐old genre of the ‘cris de Paris’, immortalised in verse as early as the thirteenth century. This paper outlines in greater detail the figure of the chanteur de rue in the early modern period, fro…
Les complaintes criminelles en Europe
La complainte, chanson des crimes et des peines, n’est pas un phénomène circonscrit à la France. Il est présent en Europe depuis l’Époque moderne. Cet article compare les complaintes françaises de 1870 à 1940 avec les complaintes anglaises, italiennes, allemandes et néerlandaises, afin de mettre en évidence leurs similitudes et leurs différences. L’article commence par une présentation du terme « complainte » et de ses usages à l’Époque moderne, …
Singing complaintes criminelles across Europe
The complainte, a song about crime and punishment, is not simply a French phenomenon, but has been found all over Europe since the early modern period. This article compares the French complaintes of 1870-1940 with their counterparts in English, Italian, German and Dutch to reveal European similarities as well as regional differences. Beginning with a brief discussion of the term ‘complaint’ and its usage in the early modern era, we move into the…
Singing the News of Punishment: The Execution Ballad in Europe, 1550–1900
This article explores the pan-European phenomenon of the execution ballad, songs that told the news of true crimes and their punishment by public execution. Looking at examples across nine languages, from the sixteenth through the nineteenth century, this comparison reveals that these ballads share multiple features in textual content and format: a recognisable, formulaic narrative; sensationalist and emotive language; and a conservative perspect…
History of Emotions: Where Are We
As we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the CHE, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotion (initially focusing on Europe 1100–1800 and with the late Professor Philippa Maddern as its founding Director) and the fifth anniversary of the launch of the journal Emotions: History, Culture, Society (founding Editors: Katie Barclay, Andrew Lynch, Giovanni Tarantino), it is only pertinent that we…
Object–based learning and history teaching: The role of emotion and empathy in engaging students with the past
In 2017 and 2018 historians teaching at the University of Melbourne, in collaboration with staff from the University of Melbourne’s Cultural Collections, brought an element of object-based learning to their undergraduate teaching. This article describes their pedagogical strategies in bringing material culture to a study of the past, discusses the advantages to this kind of teaching, and describes the results of a survey of students which aimed t…
Singing the News of Death: Execution Ballads in Europe 1500-1900
Sonido De La Muerte Inminente: Las baladas de ajusticiados en Europa (siglos XVI-XIX)
Desde los albores de la imprenta se publicaron canciones sobre acontecimientos especialmente noticiosos, y las baladas sobre criminales y sus ejecuciones fueron uno de los subgéneros más populare. Su difusión oral las convertía también en un medio extraordinariamente exitoso para la recepción de las noticias: independientemente del nivel cultural, el rango social, el sexo o la edad, todo el mundo podía escuchar y entender el contenido de una bala…
Death and the Senses: Introduction
Death and the Senses: Introduction. Un article de la revue Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme (Special issue: Death and the Senses in the Early Modern World) diffusée par la plateforme Érudit
Alternative Relics? The Sensory Powers of the Criminal Corpse
Across early modern and nineteenth-century Europe it was widely believed that the corpses of executed criminals had thaumaturgical powers that could miraculously cure a range of illnesses if they were touched or ingested. This article looks at how touch was the key sense involved in how the magical powers of the corpses of the condemned could transfer to the living. It argues that these beliefs were linked to a much older belief in relics, which …
Execution, State and Society in England, 1660–1900 , by Simon Devereaux
Art (14 works) · History (10 works) · Literature (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Aesthetics (6 works) · History (6 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Ballad (4 works) · Media studies (4 works) · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity (4 works)