La muerte en Lima en los albores del romanticismo: 1830 – 1860

Abstract

During the mid nineteenth century, the Romanticist influence was evident. From the new tastes and sensibilities introduced by the Romanticist movement amid the elites, was born a new expression towards (another’s) death. To the romantics of Lima, death was the unjust imposition of a natural and divine order, and they were hardly willing to accept it with resignation. This new form of intolerance towards death found in newspapers an ideal space to express itself (and to be shared) in a group media, as a way to mitigate the pain. In this respect, necrologies (obituaries) and funeral wreaths (written in prose and verse) published in
the capital’s newspapers fulfilled a vital role, be it in the keeping of memory (prolongation of life) or be it in the construction of socially accepted paradigms (civic or Christian).