Textile Orientalisms: Cashmere and Paisley Shawls in British Literature and Culture

In nineteenth-century British literature,Cashmere and Paisley shawls represented high fashion and the British Empire. This book explores the British obsession with these shawls through postcolonial, literary, and cultural theories, arguing that they were not just popular accessories but also metaphorical sites reflecting the pleasures and anxieties of the empire. It offers innovative readings of works by Sir Walter Scott, Wilkie Collins, William Thackeray, Frederick Niven, and Elizabeth Inchbald and reformulates the place of fashion and textiles in imperial studies.

Format: Hardback
Length: 248 pages
Publication date: 31 May 2023
Publisher: Ohio University Press

During the late eighteenth century, Cashmere shawls from the Indian subcontinent began arriving in Britain. At first, these luxury goods were tokens of wealth and prestige. Subsequently, affordable copies known as "Paisley" shawls were mass-produced in British factories, most notably in the Scottish town of the same name. Textile Orientalisms is the first full-length study of these shawls in British literature of the extended nineteenth century. Attentive to the juxtaposition of objects and their descriptions, the book analyzes the British obsession with Indian shawls through a convergence of postcolonial, literary, and cultural theories. Surveying a wide range of materials—plays, poems, satires, novels, advertisements, and archival sources—Suchitra Choudhury argues that while Cashmere and Paisley shawls were popular accoutrements in Romantic and Victorian Britain, their significance was not limited to fashion. Instead, as visible symbols of British expansion, for many imaginative writers, they emerged as metaphorical sites reflecting the pleasures and anxieties of the empire. Attentive to new theorizations of history, fashion, colonialism, and gender, the book offers innovative readings of works by Sir Walter Scott, Wilkie Collins, William Thackeray, Frederick Niven, and Elizabeth Inchbald. In determining a key status for shawls in nineteenth-century literature, Textile Orientalisms reformulates the place of fashion and textiles in imperial studies.

The books distinction rests primarily on three accounts. First, in presenting an original and extended discussion of Cashmere and Paisley shawls, Choudhury. Second, in demonstrating how these shawls were used to construct and contest notions of race, class, and gender in nineteenth-century Britain. Third, in exploring the ways in which these shawls were transformed into cultural commodities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly in the context of the British Empire.

In conclusion, Textile Orientalisms is a groundbreaking study that offers new insights into the complex relationship between fashion, textiles, and imperialism in nineteenth-century Britain. By examining the significance of Cashmere and Paisley shawls, Choudhury.

Weight: 516g
Dimension: 157 x 237 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780821425008