Wendy Parkins – författare

From a growing awareness of the depletion of energy resources and the perils of environmental degradation to the founding of self-sufficient communities and the establishment of the National Trust, the concept of sustainability began to take on a new importance in the Victorian period. An emerging sense of the fragility and instability of human and natural resources, and the deeply complex interweaving of the two, led many Victorians to consider how to preserve or protect what they valued, and how individuals, communities (or even nations) could survive and flourish in a world of finite resources. This collection explores not only nascent understandings of sustainability in ecological or environmental contexts but also encompasses consideration of the problem of psychological sustainability and emotional wellbeing in response to the upheavals of modernity. With chapters by scholars working in literary studies, history, cultural studies, and sustainability studies, the volume encompasses a wide diversity of topics, objects, and authors ranging from the 1850s to the early twentieth century. Victorian Sustainability offers new perspectives on debates about sustainability in the present by showing how our current concerns derive from an earlier historical context.

A scholarly monograph devoted to Jane Morris, an icon of Victorian art whose face continues to grace a range of Pre-Raphaelite merchandiseDescribed by Henry James as a 'dark, silent, medieval woman', Jane Burden Morris has tended to remain a rather one-dimensional figure in subsequent accounts. This book, however, challenges the stereotype of Jane Morris as silent model, reclusive invalid, and unfaithful wife. Drawing on extensive archival research as well as the biographical and literary tradition surrounding William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the book argues that Jane Morris is a figure who complicates current understandings of Victorian female subjectivity because she does not fit neatly into Victorian categories of feminine identity. She was a working-class woman who married into middle-class affluence, an artist's model who became an accomplished embroiderer and designer, and an apparently reclusive, silent invalid who was the lover of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Wilfred Scawen Blunt.Jane Morris and the Burden of History particularly focuses on textual representations - in letters, diaries, memoirs and novels - from the Victorian period onwards, in order to investigate the cultural transmission and resilience of the stereotype of Jane Morris. Drawing on recent reconceptualisations of gender, auto/biography, and afterlives, this book urges readers to think differently - about an extraordinary woman and about life-writing in the Victorian period.Key Features:First scholarly study of Jane Morris, which seeks to challenge the stereotype surrounding her as melancholy invalid and Pre-Raphaelite femme fataleInnovative case study of the role of class, gender and sexuality in the formation of Victorian feminine subjectivityContribution to emerging field of new biography and Victorian afterlives through the inclusion and examination of a wide variety of texts which construct the selfOriginal exploration of feminine creative agency that challenges conventional understandings of masculine artistic autonomy in the Victorian period

From a growing awareness of the depletion of energy resources and the perils of environmental degradation to the founding of self-sufficient communities and the establishment of the National Trust, the concept of sustainability began to take on a new importance in the Victorian period. An emerging sense of the fragility and instability of human and natural resources, and the deeply complex interweaving of the two, led many Victorians to consider how to preserve or protect what they valued, and how individuals, communities (or even nations) could survive and flourish in a world of finite resources. This collection explores not only nascent understandings of sustainability in ecological or environmental contexts but also encompasses consideration of the problem of psychological sustainability and emotional wellbeing in response to the upheavals of modernity. With chapters by scholars working in literary studies, history, cultural studies, and sustainability studies, the volume encompasses a wide diversity of topics, objects, and authors ranging from the 1850s to the early twentieth century. Victorian Sustainability offers new perspectives on debates about sustainability in the present by showing how our current concerns derive from an earlier historical context.

Speed is the essence of the modern era, but our faster, more frenetic lives often trouble us and leave us wondering how we are meant to live in today's world. Slow Living explores the philosophy and politics of 'slowness' as it investigates the growth of Slow Food into a worldwide, 'eco-gastronomic' movement. Originating in Italy, Slow Food is not only committed to the preservation of traditional cuisines and sustainable agriculture but also the pleasures of the table and a slower approach to life in general. Craig and Parkins argue that slow living is a complex response to processes of globalization. It connects ethics and pleasure, the global and the local, as part of a new emphasis on everyday life in contemporary culture and politics. The 'global everyday' is not a simple tale of speed and geographical dislocation. Instead, we all negotiate different times and spaces that make our quality of life and an 'ethics of living' more pressing concerns. This innovative book shows how slow living is about the challenges of living a more mindful and pleasurable life.

Speed is the essence of the modern era, but our faster, more frenetic lives often trouble us and leave us wondering how we are meant to live in today's world. Slow Living explores the philosophy and politics of 'slowness' as it investigates the growth of Slow Food into a worldwide, 'eco-gastronomic' movement. Originating in Italy, Slow Food is not only committed to the preservation of traditional cuisines and sustainable agriculture but also the pleasures of the table and a slower approach to life in general. Craig and Parkins argue that slow living is a complex response to processes of globalization. It connects ethics and pleasure, the global and the local, as part of a new emphasis on everyday life in contemporary culture and politics. The 'global everyday' is not a simple tale of speed and geographical dislocation. Instead, we all negotiate different times and spaces that make our quality of life and an 'ethics of living' more pressing concerns. This innovative book shows how slow living is about the challenges of living a more mindful and pleasurable life.

With an afterword by Roger Griffin. Fashion is often thought of as a matter of personal taste, completely unconnected with the public domain of political life and citizenship. Overturning this perspective, this absorbing book reveals that, from the French Revolution to post-revolutionary China, fashion has played a significant role in political participation and protest. Fashioning the Body Politic challenges the perception of helpless fashion victims, subject to manipulation by consumerism and the fashion industry, and shows how, in a range of historical and national contexts, certain styles of dress and display were significant for both men and women's political participation and the formation of their identities as citizens. How did 'dressing up' in a variety of ways allow suffragette women to perform unconventional forms of political protest? In what ways did the uniforms of scouts and guides function to erect gender, racial and religious boundaries? Following the ban on traditional clothing in Imperial Russia, how did Russians appropriate European fashions and ethnic costumes to fashion new identities for themselves?Using these and a wealth of other case studies, Fashioning the Body Politic offers a fresh perspective on the relationship between men, women and fashion and shows that the political domain has always been permeated with the cultural practices of dress, display and bodily performance.

With an afterword by Roger Griffin.Fashion is often thought of as a matter of personal taste, completely unconnected with the public domain of political life and citizenship. Overturning this perspective, this absorbing book reveals that, from the French Revolution to post-revolutionary China, fashion has played a significant role in political participation and protest. Fashioning the Body Politic challenges the perception of helpless fashion victims, subject to manipulation by consumerism and the fashion industry, and shows how, in a range of historical and national contexts, certain styles of dress and display were significant for both men and women's political participation and the formation of their identities as citizens.How did 'dressing up' in a variety of ways allow suffragette women to perform unconventional forms of political protest? In what ways did the uniforms of scouts and guides function to erect gender, racial and religious boundaries? Following the ban on traditional clothing in Imperial Russia, how did Russians appropriate European fashions and ethnic costumes to fashion new identities for themselves?Using these and a wealth of other case studies, Fashioning the Body Politic offers a fresh perspective on the relationship between men, women and fashion and shows that the political domain has always been permeated with the cultural practices of dress, display and bodily performance.