Archival context and records of feelings regarding love and death in the modern and contemporary ages: a proposal for integration from the perspective of Social History of Written Culture

The context of creation, use and conservation of records suggests an interesting parallel between archival description and Social History of Written Culture. Writings alluding to feelings take specific forms and types that broaden knowledge of textual and graphic testimony to include personal and family papers and keepsakes. The themes of love and death, understood as extremes of the human condition, engender writing practices that attempt to bridge the gap between the absent and the living. Representational practices in written artifacts are studied from the perspective of the timeless need to record the significant facts of the human experience of Eros and Thanatos.