After Love: Romantic Heartbreak, Emotions and Embodiment in Britain
c. 1750-1900
Walter Langley, Never Morning Wore to Evening but Some Heart did Break, England, 1894, © Birmingham Museums Trust, 1980P18, Public Domain.
The end of a romantic relationship is a uniquely devastating emotional experience which at its most severe can break the human heart. Whether caused by romantic rejection, infidelity, divorce, or the death of a suitor or spouse, losing love in this way very literally hurts, and can destroy our health and wellbeing.
After Love is an interdisciplinary project approaching romantic heartbreak as a distinctive form of extreme grief with profound effects on the body and mind. Through analysing heartbreak as an embodied emotional experience, it aims to ascertain how its distinguishing characteristics have changed over time, and how we can most effectively process and heal from it.