Death and the Author: Westminster Abbey and the Meanings of the Literary Monument

This article suggests that the contribution of monumental sculpture to the formation of an English literary canon has been underestimated, and that more concerted attention to the meanings and practices of monumental commemoration can provide an important new perspective from which to approach eighteenth-century representations of the nation's cultural past. Focusing on the 'poetical corner' of Westminster Abbey, the article explores the public and private meanings of the literary monument, and the ways in which the monumental commemoration of the literary past provided a vehicle for both cultural consumption, and political expression.