Shaping femininity : foundation garments, the body and women in early modern England / Sarah A Bendall.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bendall, Sarah A, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Foundation garments--England--History.

Foundation garments.

Human body--Social aspects--England--History.

Human body.

Women--Physiology--Philosophy.

Women.

Femininity (Philosophy).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (288 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Distribution:

London [England] : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021.

Place of Publication:

London [England] : AVA ACADEMIA, 2021.

Summary:

"Shaping Femininity is the first large-scale study of the materiality, production, consumption and meanings of foundation garments for women in 16th and 17th-century England, when the female silhouette underwent a dramatic change. With a nuanced approach that incorporates transdisciplinary methodologies and a stunning array of visual and written sources, the book reorients discussions about female foundation garments in English and wider European history. It argues that these objects of material culture, such as bodies, busks, farthingales and bum-rolls, shaped understandings of the female body and of beauty, social status, health, sexuality and modesty in early modern England, and thus influenced enduring western notions of femininity. Beautifully illustrated in full colour throughout, this book offers a fascinating insight into dress and fashion in the early modern period, and offers much of value to all those interested in the history of early modern women and gender, material culture, and the history of the body, as well as curators and reconstructors."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Notes on the Text

Introduction

1. The Material and Metaphorical Body: Foundation Garments and the Female Body

2. The Artificial Body: The Court, its Critics and Disputed Visions of Femininity in Elizabethan and Early Stuart England

3. The Mobile Body: Shaping the Ambitions of the Middling and Common Sorts

4. The Body Makers: Making and Buying Foundation Garments in Early Modern England

5. The Everyday Body: Health, Physicality and the Lived Experience

6. The Sexual Body: Eroticism, Reproduction and Control

7. The Respectable Body: Changing Sensibilities of Consumption in late Seventeenth-Century England

Conclusion

Glossary

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781350164147

1350164143

9781350164130

1350164135

OCLC:

1237652609