Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study is motivated by my own art practice, which exhibits a keen interest in objects and activities historically associated with the domestic, specifically with relation to needlework, in the making or producing of contemporary jewellery. Visual analysis of the work of other contemporary jewellers resulted in my realisation that the use of domestic objects and needlework in contemporary jewellery can refer to the idea of “home” through the use of phenomenological devices such as memory and nostalgia. My own art practice makes specific use of memory and nostalgia, and references trauma as experienced in the home. I investigate these themes specifically as they are depicted in contemporary jewellery. I begin my study by discussing how humans go about forming relationships with the objects with which they surround themselves. I discuss Martin Heidegger’s theory of hermeneutic phenomenology, regarding human interaction with objects and our relationship to them with regard to their specific functionality. I argue that taking the domestic objects out of their context, and in so doing ‘removing’ their functionality, allows the subject (maker, viewer, wearer) to suggest a new ‘background or horizon’ (Thomas 2006: 47) against which the object can now be read and understood. I discuss how jewellery can function as a mnemonic device, and how the domestic objects used in the specific jewellery pieces that I discuss add to this reading, identifying memory and nostalgia as the main devices facilitating a discussion of these themes. From here I work towards a definition of the domestic. By tracing the ways in which the domestic has come to denote a “space” traditionally gendered female, I look at the material culture represented within this “space” and how it relates to women. I draw on Svetlana Boym and Susan Stewart’s thoughts regarding nostalgia and its appearance in contemporary culture. Trauma and how it manifests in individual identities is then discussed with the aid of Michael S. Roth and his discussion surrounding Memory, Trauma, and History (2012). I discuss specific contemporary jewellery projects by Manon van Kouswijk (Lepidoptera Domestica, 2007); Gesine Hackenberg (Ceramic Jewellery, 2006-2011); Esther Knobel (My Grandmother is Knitting too, 2000-2002); and Iris Eichenberg (Heimat,2004). In my final chapter I discuss my own work, and highlight the ways in which I use domestic objects and needlework to reference memory, nostalgia and trauma thematically with relation to my own recollections of home. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie is gemotiveer deur my eie kunspraktyk, wat my belangstelling toon in voorwerpe en aktiwiteite wat histories verband hou met die huis, spesifiek met betrekking tot naaldwerk, in die vervaardiging van kontemporêre juweliersware. Visuele analise van die werk van ander kontemporêre juweliers het gelei tot die besef dat die gebruik van huishoudelike voorwerpe en naaldwerk in kontemporêre juweliersware kan verwys na die idee van "huis" deur die gebruik van fenomenologiese idees soos herinneringe en nostalgie. My kunspraktyk maak spesifiek gebruik van herinneringe en nostalgie, en verwys na trauma soos in die huis ervaar. Ek ondersoek hierdie temas spesifiek soos hulle uitgebeeld word in kontemporêre juweliersware. Ek begin my studie deur die wyses te bespreek waarop mense te werk gaan in die vorming van verhoudings met die voorwerpe waarmee hulle hulself omring. Ek verwys na Martin Heidegger se teorie van hermeneutiese fenomenologie, ten opsigte van menslike interaksie met voorwerpe en die verhouding wat met hulle gevorm word met betrekking tot hul spesifieke funksies. Ek argumenteer dat deur die huishoudelike voorwerpe uit hulle oorspronklike konteks te neem, en sodoende hul funksie te ‘verwyder’, kan die subjek (maker, kyker, draer) 'n nuwe “agtergrond of horison" (Thomas 2006: 47) voor stel waarteen die voorwerp gelees en verstaan kan word. Ek bespreek hoe juweliersware kan funksioneer as 'n mnemoniese toestel, en hoe die huishoudelike voorwerpe wat gebruik word in die spesifieke juweliersware wat ek in hierdie studie bespreek kan toevoeg tot hierdie bespreking, deur die identifisering van herinneringe en nostalgie as die hoof toestelle. Van hier het ek gewerk aan 'n definisie van wat die huishoudelike behels. Deur ondersoek in te stel na die manier waarop die huishoudelike as 'n tradisioneel vroulike "ruimte" geïdentifiseer is, kyk ek na die materiële kultuur verteenwoordig binne hierdie "ruimte" en hoe dit verband hou met vroue. Ek verwys na Svetlana Boym en Susan Stewart se idees rakende nostalgie en die voorkoms daarvan in hedendaagse kultuur. Trauma en die maniere waarop dit in individuele identiteite manifesteer word vervolgens bespreek met die hulp van Michael S. Roth en sy bespreking van “Memory, Trauma, and History” (2012). Ek analiseer spesifieke kontemporêre juwelierswareprojekte deur Manon van Kouswijk (Lepidoptera Domestica, 2007), Gesine Hackenberg (Ceramic Jewellery, 2006-2011), Ester Knobel (My Grandmother is Knitting too, 2000-2002), en Iris Eichenberg (Heimat, 2004). In my laaste hoofstuk bespreek ek my eie werk, en verwys veral die maniere waarop ek huishoudelike voorwerpe en naaldwerk gebruik om tematies na geheue, nostalgie en trauma met betrekking tot my eie herinneringe van die huis te verwys.

The principal purpose of this essay is to research how the development of needlework education interacts and interconnects with consumption patterns. Iceland has been used as a case for this study but any country would be applicable. The point of departure is the assumption that when a society develops more and more into being a consumer society, the needlework education also will change – in drastic forms. And that tracing a development towards consumerism can be traced in the curricula regarding this specific subject. People’s changing attitude towards spending, wasting, and an extravagant living is an important feature which explains the shift between non-consumer societies to a consumer society. Society’s outlook on these features is best reflected by that policy the institutions society uses to form its citizens’ desirable (consumer) behavior. In understanding the development from a non-consumerist society to a consumer society the study on the Icelandic syllabi for needlework and textile education plays a prominent part. A presentation on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the period of time in question has also been used in order to see the general increase of the standard of living and rise of consumerism in Iceland. Also numbers on trade and unemployment have been enclosed in order to give a more telling picture of the development and the results. The spatial imprint of the development of the Icelandic educational system and the development of syllabi for the textile handicraft subject show that an established consumer society firstly can be found in Iceland somewhere between 1960 and 1977, thus slightly ensuing the most immediate period after the World War II. A society that educates its young ones to darn, mend, and knit with the explicit motive to help deprived homes and states that this is a necessary virtue for future housewives cannot rightly be called a consumer society. It is also worth mentioning that the subject was after this breakthrough also available for boys. Furthermore, this seems to coincide with the so called “haftatímanum”, the restriction era, which lasted from 1930 to 1960. During this time the Icelandic government controlled the market having an especially harsh policy on the import of consumer goods, with product rationing as a result. Both of these two matters - the syllabi for the textile handicraft subject and the haftatímanum - had an anaesthetized impact on the development of the Icelandic consumer society.

This thesis investigates elite and genteel women’s production and consumption of material objects in Britain during the period 1750-1830. Each of its four chapters identifies a central process that characterised these engagements with material culture, focusing on ‘Migration,’ ‘Description,’ ‘Translation,’ and ‘Exchange’ in turn. The Introduction examines each of these with regard to the historiography of eighteenth-century material culture and its relationship with gender, social relations, domesticity, and materiality. It argues that by viewing material culture through the lenses of microhistory and the case study, we might gain a sense not only of how individual women acquired, used, and conceived of objects, but also how this related to the broader processes by which material culture functioned during this period. Chapter 1 identifies the importance of needlework in the construction of prescribed feminine identities, and focuses on representations of needlework in portraiture, genre prints, and conduct literature. The chapter argues that such objects created a ‘grammar’ of respectable domestic femininity that migrated through visual, literary, and material genres, reflecting the permeability of cultural forms during this period. Chapter 2 examines the role of description in the journals and correspondence of the travel writer Caroline Lybbe Powys, concentrating on her 1756 tour of Norfolk. Following the work of the cultural anthropologist Clifford Geertz, the chapter argues that the ‘thick description’ that characterises Lybbe Powys’s accounts of domestic visiting and tourism locates both the homes of her hosts and her own epistolary practices within an interpretative framework of hospitality, sociability, and materiality in which description was central. Chapter 3 considers the interior decoration of A la Ronde, the home of the cousins Jane and Mary Parminter, located in Exmouth in Devon. The chapter argues that the processes of translation that characterised the Parminters’ acquisition and display of their collection of souvenirs transformed these objects both physically and semantically, allowing the cousins to co-opt them into personal narratives, redolent of travel, the home, and the family. Chapter 4 focuses on Plas Newydd, the home of Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby. It examines how the gift exchange enacted at the house facilitated the creation of ‘gift relationships,’ which both reflected and constituted the connections between Butler and Ponsonby, their numerous friends and visitors to their home, between Plas Newydd and the surrounding landscape, and between material culture, experience, and sentiment, more broadly. Together, the constituent chapters of the thesis demonstrate that there was no simple connection between gender and material culture. However, by interrogating the key cultural processes in which this relationship operated, the thesis hopes to demonstrate the complexity and fluidity of its manifestations.

Due to a personal interest in textile craft, my own experience as a knitter in combination with studies in integrated conservation and gender studies as a subsidiary subject this research was done as my thesis in integrated conservation. With the purpose to study textile craft traditions as a feminine part of the intangible cultural heritage in todays society with focus on craftivism, a questionnaire study was done. The study was addressed to craftivists who practice any kind of textile craft with the purpose to get a deeper insight in their understanding, attitude and opinions related to craftivism and textile craft traditions. The female norm in textile craft and especially textile craftivism was remarkably striking in the results of the questionnaire study, which can explain why feminism is an issue close to heart for most of the informants. Among many of the craftivists in this study there is an awareness of this norm and traditional feminine connotative meanings related to textile, for example softness and warmth. These connotative meanings are consciously used by many craftivists to create contrasts with norm breaking statements. These contrasting effects can be interpreted as innovative, inspiring and remarkable. Craftivism is therefore a way to use one’s creativity to make one’s voice heard. It could be a part of textile craft traditions today, in a stage of innovation and forward looking, which is likely to be a contributing variable due to the preservation of the intangible textile cultural heritage in the future. / Med grunden i ett eget textilintresse, mina erfarenheter som stickare, i kombination med kulturvårdsstudier och genusvetenskap som biämne utfördes den här undersökningen som kandidatexamensarbete inom kulturvård. Med syftet att undersöka textila hantverkstraditioner som ett kvinnligt kodat immateriellt kulturarv i dagens samhälle med fokus på hantverksaktivism utfördes en enkätundersökning som riktade sig mot hantverksaktivister som utövar någon form av textilt hantverk för att få en fördjupad inblick i deras förhållande, inställning och åsikter kring hantverksaktivism och textila hantverkstraditioner. Den kvinnliga normen inom textilhantverk och främst inom textil hantverksaktivism var påfallande tydlig i enkätsvaren och kan förklara varför feminism och kvinnofrågor är hjärtefrågor för majoriteten av informanterna. Hos hantverksaktivisterna i den här undersökningen finns i många fall en medvetenhet kring denna norm och traditionella kvinnliga konnotationer som berör textil, till exempel värme och mjukhet. Många använder sig av just dessa kvinnliga konnotationer och traditioner för att skapa kontraster med normbrytande budskap, en kontrastverkan som kan tolkas som nytänkande, inspirerande och uppseendeväckande. Hantverksaktivism är därför ett medel att använda sin kreativitet för att göra sin röst hörd och kan ses som en del av textila hantverkstraditioner i ett stadie av förnyelse och framåtblickande som med sannolikhet kommer vara en bidragande faktor i bevarandet av det immateriella textila kulturarvet för framtiden.

The term "narratives of confinement" redefines the parameters by which first-person, fictive and non-fictive, accounts of female captivity are classified, broadening the genre beyond Indian captivity narratives and slave narratives to include other works in which female narrators describe physical and/or psychological confinement due to tangible or non-tangible forces. Often these narratives exhibit the transformation of the drudgery of housewifery into powerful symbols of resistance and subversion, especially in reaction to traumatic events related to confinement. Needlework and food, including its preparation and distribution, frequently emerge as metaphors that express the ways in which disempowered women seek to regain control in their lives: sewing often represents an effort by women to seize power, blending the creative act with economic achievement; food preparation also relates to creativity and economic achievement and often represents love and nurturing. In this study, I examine three representative narratives of confinement, using close reading and scholarly evidence as support: Mary Rowlandson's 1682 Indian captivity narrative, A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson; Harriet Jacobs' 1861 slave narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself; and Toni Morrison's 1987 fictional neo-slave narrative, Beloved. My examination begins the dialogue regarding the connection between domestic metaphors and narratives of confinement, broadening scholarship to allow more consideration for the subtle, feminized language of domesticity.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 189-196). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 189-196). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (D.C.A.)--University of Wollongong, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 173-188.

O objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar o ensino de bordados e outros trabalhos em suportes têxteis dentro do sistema educacional desenvolvido a partir da segunda metade do século XIX e início do XX, dando particular atenção ao ensino confessional das escolas da Congregação São José de Chambéry. A presente pesquisa analisa como os trabalhos manuais de agulha possuem uma larga identificação com a mulher. Estes trabalhos ajudaram na construção de uma imagem de feminilidade, participando ativamente na formação da identidade de gênero. O século XIX reconheceu a escola como um espaço privilegiado de difusão dessas tradições femininas. Para as mulheres, a escolaridade surge com a importante missão de formar a esposa, a mãe e, com isso, sedimentar os ideais da nação. Neste projeto educacional, o currículo reserva uma particularidade, o ensino exclusivo de trabalhos de agulha para as escolas do sexo feminino. Acreditamos que este particularismo seja revelador de como os trabalhos de agulha eram vistos como o instrumento perfeito para a construção desta feminilidade, e, nas escolas confessionais, como veículo de inculcação dos valores cristãos reformadores do ultramontanismo. / The objective of this research is to analyse the teaching of embroidery and other works in textile production inside the educational system developed from the second half of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, directing particular attention to the confessional education of the schools of the Congregation Saint-Joseph of Chambéry. The present research analyses how needle crafts have a wide identificiation with women. These works have helped on the construction of an image of femininity, taking active part on the formation of the gender identity. The 19th century recognized the school as a privileged space for diffusion of these female traditions. To women, scholarity emerges with the important mission of forming the wife, the mother and, with it, found the ideals of the nation. On this educational project, the curriculum reserves one particularity, the exclusive education of needle works to schools of the female sex. We believe this particularity to be revealing proof of how needleworks were seen as the perfect instrument for the constructing of femininity, and, in confessional schools, as an inculcation vehicle for the reformative Christian values of ultramontanism.