{"product_id":"textile-orientalisms-9780821425008","title":"Textile Orientalisms","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe first major study of Cashmere and Paisley shawls in nineteenth-century British literature, this book shows how they came to represent both high fashion and the British Empire.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDuring the late eighteenth century, Cashmere shawls from the Indian subcontinent began arriving in Britain. At first, these luxury goods were tokens of wealth and prestige. Subsequently, affordable copies known as Paisley shawls were mass-produced in British factories, most notably in the Scottish town of the same name. Textile Orientalisms is the first full-length study of these shawls in British literature of the extended nineteenth century. Attentive to the juxtaposition of objects and their descriptions, the book analyzes the British obsession with Indian shawls through a convergence of postcolonial, literary, and cultural theories. \u003cbr\u003eSurveying a wide range of materialsplays, poems, satires, novels, advertisements, and archival sourcesSuchitra Choudhury argues that while Cashmere and Pa\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom diplomatic gift to fashion trend, literary trope to colonialism’s violent accessory, the cashmere shawl is the star of Textile Orientalisms. Expertly weaving historical and literary sources, Suchitra Choudhury spins a vibrant tale of this culturally rich textile, intertwining the object and its many soft powers with British Empire scholarship. -- Susan Hiner, author of Accessories to Modernity: Fashion and the Feminine in Nineteenth-Century France\u003cbr\u003eSuchitra Choudhury weaves together entangled histories and discovers that the humble shawl is in fact a powerful symbol of empire, trade, industry, class, gender, design, and fashion, as well as being a symbol of identity, authenticity, family, and belonging. -- Leonie Bell, director, Victoria and Albert Museum Dundee\u003cbr\u003eA magisterial exploration…. Suchitra Choudhury has dug deeply in the archives of British India to reveal the shawl’s multiple meanings as a desired fashion accessory and orientalist icon. Linking the fashion system to imperial governance, gender and class insurrection, her book demonstrates that despite its privileged place at the heart of British domesticity, the ‘old Cashmere shawl’ possessed an uncanny power to disturb and disrupt. An important, original, and long-awaited contribution to the literary study of British India. -- Nigel Leask, author of Stepping Westward: Writing the Highland Tour, c.1720-1830\u003cbr\u003eThe definitive work on the subject of Cashmere and Paisley shawls in all of their intricate significances within eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English history and fiction. -- Deborah Denenholz Morse, Sara E. Nance Professor of English, College of William \u0026amp; Mary\u003cbr\u003eAn original and arresting piece of scholarship…. With its broad range, it should find a wide readership among those interested in fashion and the novel, literary critics, and cultural and imperial historians alike. -- Kate Teltscher, author of India Inscribed: European and British Writing on India, 1600–1800\u003cbr\u003eAn impressive and extensive study on the cashmere shawl in British literature, anatomizing it as both a valuable commodity and a rich metaphor in literature. Suchitra Choudhury’s work is unique in denoting the shawl’s significance in both feminine and masculine experiences, and the manifold interpretations it engendered, creating ‘a “grammar” of consumption’ across gender and imperial discourses….It would be very useful for students of fashion, Victorian, and material culture studies, as well as suitable for the general reading public. * Fashion Theory *\u003cbr\u003eThis beautifully illustrated and engagingly written monograph surveys a wide range of materials including poems, plays, novels, and artistic and illustrative material.... [W]hat this book does exceptionally well is highlight and hold in balance the many competing discourses that surrounded Cashmere and imitation shawls in Britain during this period. Drawing upon the literary shawl as both a locus, representative, and even occasionally a tool of empire, Choudhury’s engaging monograph sets up and excitingly explores \"the interface between Britain and India during the colonial period.\" * British Association for Victorian Studies Newsletter *\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ohio University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49406008492375,"sku":"9780821425008","price":56.1,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780821425008.jpg?v=1730494224","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/textile-orientalisms-9780821425008","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}