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OverviewWhy did the Victorians collect with such a vengeance and exhibit in museums? Focusing on this key 19th-century enterprise, Barbara J. Black seeks to illuminate British culture of the period by examining the cultural power that this collecting and exhibiting possessed. Through its museums, she argues, Victorian London constructed itself as a world city. Using the tools of cultural criticism, social history and literary analysis, the author roots Victorian museum culture in key political events and cultural forces: British imperialism, exploration and tourism; advances in science and changing attitudes about knowledge; the commitment to improved public taste through mass education; the growth of middle-class dominance and the resulting bourgeois fetishism and commodity culture; and the democratization of luxury engendered by the French and industrial revolutions. She covers a wide range of genres - from poetry to museum guidebooks to the triple-decker novel -and treats three London museums as case studies: Sir John Soane's house-museum, the Natural History Museum, and the exemplary South Kensington. While the work provides an analysis of Victorian society, it also reminds us how modern the Victorians were - how, in crucial ways, our culture derives from the Victorian era. Forging connections among museums, urbanism and modernity, it provokes the reader to examine cultural imperialism and the costs and advantages of cultural consensus. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Barbara J. BlackPublisher: University of Virginia Press Imprint: University of Virginia Press Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.562kg ISBN: 9780813918976ISBN 10: 0813918979 Pages: 256 Publication Date: 28 February 2000 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print  This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsReviewsBeginning with an overview of Victorian museum culture, Black moves skillfully between an examination of some of the most well known (as well as some of the most outlandish) museums of the period and a theoretical evaluation of the method of display and categorization that governed these emporia of various arcana. On Exhibit begins in very important ways to unravel the representation of culture to itself.--Joseph Childers, University of California, Riverside <p>Beginning with an overview of Victorian museum culture, Blackmoves skillfully between an examination of some of the most well known (as well assome of the most outlandish) museums of the period and a theoretical evaluation ofthe method of display and categorization that governed these emporia of variousarcana. On Exhibit begins in very important ways to unravel the representation ofculture to itself.--Joseph Childers, University of California, Riverside Author InformationBarbara J. Black is Associate Professor of English at Skidmore College. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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