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Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Portable Property: Victorian Culture on the Move

Portable Property: Victorian Culture on the Move

Paperback

Literary CriticismGeneral SociologyBritish History

ISBN10: 0691146624
ISBN13: 9780691146621
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: Dec 13 2009
Pages: 288
Weight: 0.93
Height: 0.50 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English

What fueled the Victorian passion for hair-jewelry and memorial rings? When would an everyday object metamorphose from commodity to precious relic? In Portable Property, John Plotz examines the new role played by portable objects in persuading Victorian Britons that they could travel abroad with religious sentiments, family ties, and national identity intact. In an empire defined as much by the circulation of capital as by force of arms, the challenge of preserving Englishness while living overseas became a central Victorian preoccupation, creating a pressing need for objects that could readily travel abroad as personifications of Britishness. At the same time a radically new relationship between cash value and sentimental associations arose in certain resonant mementoes--in teacups, rings, sprigs of heather, and handkerchiefs, but most of all in books.


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Literary Criticism