The Significance of Fabrics in the Writings of Elizabeth Gaskell
eBook - ePub

The Significance of Fabrics in the Writings of Elizabeth Gaskell

Material Evidence

  1. 224 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Significance of Fabrics in the Writings of Elizabeth Gaskell

Material Evidence

About this book

Elizabeth Gaskell's writings abound in references to a cultural materiality encompassing different types of fabric, stuffs, calicoes, chintzes and fine-point lace. These are not merely the motifs of the Realist genre but reveal a complex polysemy. Utilizing a metonymic examination of these tropes, this volume exposes the dramatic structural and socio-economic upheaval generated by industrialization, urbanization and the widening sphere of empire. The material evidence testifies to the technological and production innovations evolving diachronically for the period, and the evolution of Manchester as the industrial 'Cottonpolis' that clothed the world by the 1840s. This volume analyses Gaskell's manipulation of the materiality, arguing its firm roots lie in the quotidian of women's domestic and provincial life within the growing ranks of the middle classes. Exploring Gaskell's tactile imagination, an embodied relationship with fabrics and sewing, a function of her daily life from an early age, this volume provides insight into the sensory aspects of cloth and its ability to stir affective responses, emotions and memories, whereby worn fabrics and even the absence of previous textile treasures, is poignant, recreating layers of recollection. This book aims to restore the pulsating, dynamic context of ordinary women's dressed lives and presents innovative interpretations of Gaskell's texts.

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Yes, you can access The Significance of Fabrics in the Writings of Elizabeth Gaskell by Amanda Ford in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Modern Literary Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher
Routledge
Year
2022
Print ISBN
9781032341637
eBook ISBN
9781000816297

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Half-Title Page
  3. Series Page
  4. Title Page
  5. Copyright Page
  6. Contents
  7. List of figures
  8. List of Abbreviations
  9. Acknowledgements
  10. Introduction
  11. 1 ā€˜Women's Chops and Changes’: Stuff, Woollens and Kashmir Shawls
  12. 2 Cottons, Calicoes and ā€˜Atrocious Prints’
  13. 3 Grave Concerns: The Fabrics of Loss and Mourning in Mary Barton
  14. 4 Ruffles, Old Point and Net Curtains
  15. 5 Silks and Showiness
  16. Conclusion: Material Twists and Surface Depths
  17. Index