Gender and Material Culture in Britain since 1600

Description

What does material culture tell us about gendered identities and how does gender reveal the meaning of spaces and things? If we look at the objects that we own, covet and which surround us in our everyday culture, there is a clear connection between ideas about gender and the material world. This book explores the material culture of the past to shed light on historical experiences and identities. Some essays focus on specific objects, such as an eighteenth-century jug or a 20th powder puff, others on broader material environments, such as the sixteenth-century guild or the interior of a 20th century pub, while still others focus on the paraphernalia associated with certain actions, such as letter-writing or maintaining 18th century men's hair. Written by scholars in a range of history-related disciplines, the essays in this book offer exposes of current research methods and interests. These demonstrate to students how a relationship between material culture and gender is being addressed, while also revealing a variety of intellectual approaches and topics.

Hannah Greig is Senior Lecturer in History and a member of the Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies at the University of York, UK. Jane Hamlett is Reader in Modern British History at Royal Holloway University of London, UK, where she is Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of the Body and Material Culture. Leonie Hannan is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Collaborative Research in the Humanities at Queen's University, Belfast, UK.

'Why are pens seldom gendered while shoes are? Why should girls play with dolls and not boys? Gender and Material Culture is a unique contribution to what has been defined as a material turn in history, covering hitherto unexplored areas of the complex relationship between gender and material things in Britain since the seventeenth century.' - Giorgio Riello, University of Warwick, UK