7. The Mythical Power of Everyday Objects: The Material Culture of Radical Nationalism in Postsocialist Hungary

2020 ◽  
pp. 147-170
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Everyday Objects ◽  
Radical Nationalism

scholarly journals From Competition to Cooperation

2020 ◽  
pp. 120-149
Author(s):  
Katrin Schreiter
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Industrial Design ◽  
Competitive Situation ◽  
Everyday Objects ◽  
German States ◽  
Cultural Exchanges ◽  
Economic Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter looks at the influence of Cold War diplomacy on German design. Within the bipolarity of the Cold War, the political significance of aesthetics in everyday objects was well established. Taking the focus of the superpowers to interrogate the specifically German cultural politics behind the aestheticization of separate identities—proletarian in the East and cosmopolitan in the West—highlights German interests in the global Cold War. It is in the operationalization of industrial design for diplomatic purposes, in which economic culture and foreign policy directly connect. In order to show how material culture emerged as a recognizable language in the intra-German relationship and what functions it served, this chapter integrates the material with the diplomatic ambitions of the two German states. In this way, East and West German cultural-political strategies that sought to negotiate a German-German modus vivendi through the medium of domestic culture can be connected to the complex history of Cold War German diplomacy within the framework of international industrial design exhibitions, international design organizations, and direct German-German cultural exchanges. At the center stands the question of how both Germanys turned a competitive situation, the aestheticization of their respective political orders, into a diplomatic tool for rapprochement.

scholarly journals The Colonial Reinvention of the Hei Tiki: Pounamu, Knowledge and Empire, 1860s-1940s

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kathryn Street
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Gold Rush ◽  
World War ◽  
Everyday Objects ◽  
Cultural Legacy ◽  
Colonial Culture ◽  
Client Relationships ◽  
Multiple Meanings

<p>This thesis examines the reinvention of pounamu hei tiki between the 1860s and 1940s. It asks how colonial culture was shaped by engagement with pounamu and its analogous forms greenstone, nephrite, bowenite and jade.   The study begins with the exploitation of Ngāi Tahu’s pounamu resource during the West Coast gold rush and concludes with post-World War II measures to prohibit greenstone exports. It establishes that industrially mass-produced pounamu hei tiki were available in New Zealand by 1901 and in Britain by 1903. It sheds new light on the little-known German influence on the commercial greenstone industry. The research demonstrates how Māori leaders maintained a degree of authority in the new Pākehā-dominated industry through patron-client relationships where they exercised creative control.   The history also tells a deeper story of the making of colonial culture. The transformation of the greenstone industry created a cultural legacy greater than just the tangible objects of trade. Intangible meanings are also part of the heritage. The acts of making, selling, wearing, admiring, gifting, describing and imagining pieces of greenstone pounamu were expressions of culture in practice. Everyday objects can tell some of these stories and provide accounts of relationships and ways of knowing the world.   The pounamu hei tiki speaks to this history because more than merely stone, it is a cultural object and idea. In this study, it stands for the dynamic processes of change, the colonial realities of Māori resistance and participation and Pākehā experiences of dislocation and attachment.   The research sits at an intersection of new imperial histories and studies of material culture. The power of pounamu to carry multiple meanings and to be continually reinterpreted represents the circulation of colonial knowledge, and is a central contention of the thesis.</p>

scholarly journals On Things from Sea and Shore: British Naval Heroism in Material Culture

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 508-518
Author(s):  
Ulrike Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Social Participation ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Mass Production ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Everyday Objects ◽  
Maritime Culture ◽  
Global Influence

Abstract This article examines social participation and the dissemination of cultural knowledge through artefacts, and analyses how unspectacular and mundane everyday objects manage to convey ideas of the exceptional and heroic, as, for example, in the case of Admiral Lord Nelson and the souvenir culture surrounding him and his victories. Over the course of the eighteenth century, the British Empire expanded and consolidated its global influence, relying heavily on the British Navy in the process. Public interest in the Navy—and in its prominent figures—increased and was also consciously promoted, and, as a consequence, elements of maritime culture were taken up and adapted in everyday culture. Nautically inspired artefacts became the fashion, and the new opportunities for mass production contributed to their proliferation. Thus, admiration for a naval hero found its expression in a multitude of artefacts which, taken by themselves, have nothing of the heroic about them but taken en masse demonstrate the significance of naval prowess in this period, and the forging of connections between the domestic to the foreign sphere.

The Novel of Neronian Rome and its Multimedial Transformations

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Comic Strips ◽  
Literary Adaptation ◽  
Everyday Objects ◽  
League Tables ◽  
Classical Reception ◽  
Recent Emergence ◽  
Quo Vadis ◽  
Mass Circulation

When in 1905 the Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature ‘for outstanding services as an epic writer’, it was his novel Quo vadis. A Narrative of the Time of Nero that motivated the committee to bestow this notable honour. The extraordinary international success of Quo vadis catapulted the author into literary stardom, placing him at the top of international league tables for the sheer quantity of his readers. But, before long, the historical novel began to detach itself from the person of its author and to become a multimedial, mass–culture phenomenon. In the West and East, Quo vadis was adapted for the stage and screen, provided the inspiration for works of music and other genres of literature, was transformed into comic strips and illustrated children’s books, and was cited in advertising and referenced in everyday objects of material culture. No work in English to date has explored in depth the mechanisms that released Quo vadis into mass circulation and the influence that its diverse spin-off forms exercised on other areas of culture—even on the reception and interpretation of the literary text itself. In the context of a robust scholarly interest in the processes of literary adaptation and classical reception, and set alongside the recent emergence of interest in the ‘Ben-Hur tradition’, this volume provides a coherent forum for a much-needed exploration, from various disciplinary and national perspectives, of the multimedial transformations of Quo vadis. Uniquely, also, for its English-speaking readers this collection of essays renders more visible the cultural conquests achieved by Poland on the world map of classical reception.

scholarly journals Inspiracje sztuką i kulturą Podhala w powojennej galanterii i biżuterii polskiej

Artifex Novus ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 66-77
Author(s):  
Michał Myśliński
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Folk Art ◽  
Bovine Bone ◽  
Everyday Objects ◽  
Decorative Art ◽  
Artistic Value ◽  
Native Art ◽  
Local Tradition ◽  
Polish Culture ◽  
Tourist Region

Abstrakt: Zainteresowanie sztuką ludową Podhala wśród polskich artystów i badaczy sięga lat osiemdziesiątych XIX wieku. Wynikało ono z dostrzeżenia artystycznej wartości tworzonych tam dzieł oraz poszukiwań tzw. sztuki narodowej i rodzimej, tak bardzo ważnych dla polskiej kultury i tożsamości. Inspiracje kulturą materialną i artystyczną Podhala przyczyniły się m.in. do wielkiego sukcesu polskiej ekspozycji na Wystawie Sztuki Dekoracyjnej w Paryżu w 1925 roku. Zainteresowanie to nie zmniejszyło się po 1945 r., ale przybrało inne formy. W tym czasie powstawały w Polsce liczne spółdzielnie, których zadaniem było tworzenie przedmiotów codziennego użytku i dzieł sztuki ludowej, zgodnie z lokalną tradycją rękodzielniczą, ikonograficzną, zdobniczą itp. Pewną część produkcji stanowiła tzw. metaloplastyka – sprzączki do pasków, spinki do koszul, zatrzaski do torebek, noże, okucia fajek i in., których forma była inspiracją dla artystów tworzących dzieła biżuterii – bransoletki, broszki, wisiory itp. Asortyment ten uzupełniony został także o inne elementy – wykonywane z blachy, kości bydlęcej, galalitu i drewna broszki, wisiorki i breloki, które były przede wszystkim pamiątkami przywożonymi z tego bardzo popularnego regionu turystycznego. Summary: The interest in the folk art of the Podhale region among Polish artists and researchers dates back to the 1880s. It resulted from the perception of the artistic value of the works created here, as well as the search for the so-called national and native art, very important for Polish culture and national identity. Inspiration with the material culture of Podhale came from, among others a great effect in the form of the success of Polish art at the Exhibition of Decorative Art in Paris in 1925. This interest did not diminish after 1945, but took other forms. At that time, numerous cooperatives were established in Poland, whose task was to create everyday objects and works of folk art, in line with the local tradition in terms of technology, iconography, ornaments, etc. In Podhale, among many produced works, a certain part was the so-called metalwork – belt buckles, shirt clips, purse fasteners, knives, etc., the shape of which was an inspiration for artists creating bracelets, brooches, pendants, etc. This assortment was supplemented with other items – made of sheet metal, bovine bone, galalite and wood, brooches, pendants, and key rings, which were primarily souvenirs brought from this very popular tourist region.

A Cultural History of Objects in the Age of Enlightenment

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Maritime Transport ◽  
Everyday Objects ◽  
Scientific Instrumentation ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The World ◽  
Slave Ships ◽  
History Of ◽  
Age Of Enlightenment

A Cultural History of Objects in the Age of Enlightenment covers the period 1600 to 1760, a time marked by the movement of people, ideas and goods. The objects explored in this volume from scientific instrumentation and Baroque paintings to slave ships and shackles encapsulate the contradictory impulses of the age. The entwined forces of capitalism and colonialism created new patterns of consumption, facilitated by innovations in maritime transport, new forms of exchange relations, and the exploitation of non-Western peoples and lands. The world of objects in the Enlightenment reveal a Western material culture profoundly shaped by global encounters. The 6 volume set of the Cultural History of Objects examines how objects have been created, used, interpreted and set loose in the world over the last 2500 years. Over this time, the West has developed particular attitudes to the material world, at the centre of which is the idea of the object. The themes covered in each volume are objecthood; technology; economic objects; everyday objects; art; architecture; bodily objects; object worlds.

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