Conclusion

Abstract

As will have become evident from the preceding chapters, shame has a reconstituted and reconfigured place within modernity, often aided and abetted by events, social change and the construction of new cultures. These use and employ shame in manners reminiscent of the past, as evident in the chapters about the white feather phenomenon and those concerning abortion and homosexuality, where the ideas and tropes which appear are recognisable from the nineteenth century and thus reprise the discussions which were engaged upon in our first book. Whilst many are quite closely related to their nineteenth-century forebears, it is noticeable that they are writ large and occur on a national rather than a local scale. One important part of this has been the increasing modernisation of attitudes to conduct and the increasing bureaucratisation. Whilst these regulated and professionalised behaviour, it remains a paradox that still more codes of conduct created still more room for transgression and opportunities for shaming to occur, and certainly this is evident from the case studies of Horatio Bottomley and Lord Lambton. Equally, however, some startling and unexpected things have happened during the modern era which have made shame become a component of malleable identities.