Before the rise of private homes as we now understand them, the
realm of personal, private, and local relations in England was the
parish, which was also the sphere of poverty management. Between
the 1740s and the 1790s, legislators, political economists,
reformers, and novelists transferred the parish system's functions
to another institution that promised self-sufficient prosperity:
the laborer's cottage. Expanding its scope beyond the parameters of
literary history and previous studies of domesticity, "Be It Ever
So Humble "posits that the modern middle-class home was conceived
during the eighteenth century in England, and that its first
inhabitants were the poor.
Over the course of the eighteenth century, many participants in
discussions about poverty management came to believe that private
family dwellings could turn England's indigent, unemployed, and
discontent into a self-sufficient, productive, and patriotic labor
force. Writers and thinkers involved in these debates produced
copious descriptions of what a private home was and how it related
to the collective national home. In this body of texts, Scott
MacKenzie pursues the origins of the modern middle-class home
through an extensive set of discourses--including philosophy, law,
religion, economics, and aesthetics--all of which brush up against
and often spill over into literary representations.
Through close readings, the author substantiates his claim that
the private home was first invented for the poor and that only
later did the middle class appropriate it to themselves. Thus, the
late eighteenth century proves to be a watershed moment in home's
conceptual life, one that produced a remarkably rich and complex
set of cultural ideas and images.
General
Imprint: |
University of Virginia Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
February 2013 |
First published: |
February 2013 |
Authors: |
Scott R MacKenzie
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 25mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover - Cloth over boards / With dust jacket
|
Pages: |
320 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8139-3341-2 |
Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
General
|
LSN: |
0-8139-3341-2 |
Barcode: |
9780813933412 |
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