The Consumption of Culture 1600-1800: Image, Object, Text (Consumption and Culture in 17th and 18th Centuries)

Culture does not become "culture" until it is consumed. This is the radical new interpretation of early modern social history presented in The Consumption of Culture 1600-1800. 21 US and 4 european contributors, from a wide range of historically oriented fields (historians of society, politics, ideas, science, literature and the arts), explore topics such as the formation of a culture consuming public, the development of a literary canon, the role of consumption in the formation of the modern state, elite and popular forms of cultural consumtpion and the place of women as consumers of culture. The result is an important and rich new approach to the study of the 17th and 18th centuries. The Mapping Of The Consumption Of Culture Reveals A Complex Cultural Organization Of Economic Transactions, Social Institutions And Ideological Apparatuses That Continually Redrew The Boundaries Between Social Classes, Between Public And Private Life, Between High Art And Low, And Between Men And Women. As An Inquiry Into The Consumption Rather Than The Production Of Culture, The Present Volume Looks Upon The History Of Aesthetic Artifacts As A History Of Their Diverse Receptions. Questions About Artistic Or Authorial Intentionality And Technique Give Way To Questions About Utility And Meaning. As The Essays Show, Audiences Do Not Exist Prior To Cultural Production, They Are Its Effect. Culture Does Not Become 'culture' Until It Is Consumed. The Twenty-six Contributors Come From A Wide Range Of Historically Oriented Fields (historians Of Society, Politics, Ideas, Science, Literature And The Arts). In Many Cases Their Research Suggests The New Proximity Of Interests And Methods That, Under The Rubric Of 'cultural History', Has Cut Across Areas Of Specialization And Traditional Disciplinary Boundaries. While Widely Different In Their Emphases And Methodologies, All The Authors Share An Interest In Challenging Our Ideas Of Culture, Canon, Period, Gender, Class, Public, Private, Production, And, Of Course, Consumption. 1. Introduction. The Consumption Of Culture: Image, Object, Text / Ann Bermingham -- 2. Subjective Powers? Consumption, The Reading Public, And Domestic Woman In Early Eighteenth-century England / Terry Lovell -- 3. Reading Women. Text And Image In Eighteenth-century England / Peter H. Pawlowicz -- 4. Colonizing Readers. Review Criticism And The Formation Of A Reading Public / Frank Donoghue -- 5. Expanding On Portraiture. The Market, The Public, And The Hierarchy Of Genres In Eighteenth-century Britain / Louise Lippincott -- 6. The Abandoned Hero. The Decline Of State Authority In The Direction Of French Painting As Seen In The Career Of One Exemplary Theme, 1777-89 / Thomas Crow -- 7. Gombrich And The Rise Of Landscape / W. J. T. Mitchell -- 8. British Romanticism, Gender, And Three Women Artists / Anne K. Mellor -- 9. The Exchange Of Letters. Early Modern Contradictions And Postmodern Conundrums / Don E. Wayne -- 10. Author-mongering. The Editor Between Producer And Consumer / Robert Hiffe. 11. Shot From Canons; Or, Maria Edgeworth And The Cultural Production And Consumption Of The Eighteenth-century Woman Writer / Mitzi Myers -- 12. Polygamy, Pamela, And The Prerogative Of Empire / Felicity A. Nussbaum -- 13. The Good, The Bad, And The Impotent. Imperialism And The Politics Of Identity In Georgian England / Kathleen Wilson -- 14. The State's Demand For Accurate Astronomical And Navigational Instruments In Eighteenth-century Britain / Richard Sorrenson -- 15. Signs And Citizens. Sign Language And Visual Sign In The French Revolution / Nicholas Mirzoeff -- 16. Outrages. Sculpture And Kingship In France After 1789 / Anne M. Wagner -- 17. Dante's Restaurant. The Cultural Work Of Experiment In Early Modern Tuscany / Jay Tribby -- 18. The Most Polite Age And The Most Vicious. Attitudes Towards Culture As A Commodity, 1660-1800 / John Brewer -- 19. Politeness For Plebes. Consumption And Social Identity In Early Eighteenth-century England / Lawrence E. Klein. 20. Emulative Consumption And Literacy. The Harlot, Moll Flanders, And Mrs. Slipslop / Ronald Paulson -- 21. La Chose Publique. Hubert Robert's Decorations For The Petit Salon At Mereville / Paula Rea Radisich -- 22. News From The New Exchange. Commodity, Erotic Fantasy, And The Female Entrepreneur / James Grantham Turner -- 23. Women's Participation In The Urban Culture Of Early Modern London. Images From Fiction / Elizabeth Bennett Kubek -- 24. The Im/modesty Of Her Sex. Elisabeth Vigee-lebrun And The Salon Of 1783 / Mary D. Sheriff -- 25. Elegant Females And Gentlemen Connoisseurs. The Commerce In Culture And Self-image In Eighteenth-century England / Ann Bermingham -- 26. Social Order And The Domestic Consumption Of Music. The Politics Of Sound In The Policing Of Gender Construction In Eighteenth-century England / Richard Leppert. Edited By Ann Bermingham And John Brewer. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. In this chapter I want to explore some questions of the place of women within the emergent modern culture of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and I want to begin by examining the three ordering concepts of the 1990-1 Clark Lecture series which provide the basis for this collection of chapters: "culture"; "consumption"; "public". Examines the construction of images of masculinity and the effect they have on identity, sexuality and sexual politics. Influences from black and white culture are explored as well as the ironies of class, colour and sexuality. Culture does not become 'culture' until it is consumed. This is a radical new interpretation of early modern social history by leading specialists from North America and Europe, who explore a wide variety of topics.