Posthumous Parallel and Parallax: the obituary revival on three continents

Abstract

The newspapers of Britain, the United States, and Australia in recent years have increased significantly the column space devoted to obituaries. In so doing, they have reinvented one of the earliest expressions of popular journalism. The obituary art in its first incarnation was practised by the newsbook compilers of 17th-century England, notably during the Restoration. It flowered in the 18th century, in the first daily newspapers and in The Gentleman's Magazine; it was exported to the colonial newspapers of America and Australia; it grew luxuriant, and sometimes ornate, in the 19th century; it became unfashionable and fell into widespread neglect in the 20th. Then, with the appointment of reformist editors and, particularly in Britain, the publication of bigger newspapers by an industry no longer subjected to labour restraint, the obituary experienced its own restoration. Though the momentum of renewed practice has been of mutual rapidity on three continents, there are some significant variations in its application. The American product generally favours a style faithful to news-writing principles so far as timing and content are concerned and is frequently expansive when relating the details of surviving family and funeral arrangements. In Britain, the emphasis is more on creative composition and a recitation of anecdotes, with less of a sense of urgency about contemporaneous publication and a consequent accent on character sketch. Newspapers in Australia, while adopting the obituary with apparent fervour, engage often in informal expression and unrestrained sentiment, largely because of their reliance on reader contributions. This article examines issues of origin, definition, authorship, and editorial practice in journalism's dying art.