Is This Not Just Nationalism?” Disentangling the Threads of Folk Costumes in the History of Central and Eastern Europe

Dados Bibliográficos

ID11047351
AutoresCorinne Geering (0000-0002-2334-0345, Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO), autor correspondente)
Ano2022
Volume50
Fascículo4
Páginas722-741
Data de publicação2022-07-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoNationalities Papers (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0090-5992 • E-ISSN: 1465-3923
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/nps.2021.21
OpenAlexW4205604921
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas49

This article critically examines the prevalent nationalist interpretation of historical images featuring textiles from rural regions. In an effort to disentangle the threads of folk costumes, it proposes a conscious unlearning of the way we read images of rural material culture from the late 19th century. This period has entered historiography as a period of intensifying national movements and political use of rural culture, in particular in Central and Eastern Europe. So-called folk costumes have been viewed as a symbolic representation of the nation, whereas their broader social and economic role in the history of industrial society has been overshadowed. By bringing together the production, collection, and exhibition of rural material culture, this article reveals processes in industrial society that shaped the modern history of folk costumes. It draws on late-19th-century source material stemming from a network centered in Prague that promoted textiles from rural Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, and Galicia as ethno-commodities. Textiles were integrated into women’s industrial education and presented at events promoting national economy and the latest technological innovations. Thus, this article contributes to nationalism studies by discussing capitalism and industrialism and seeks to further scrutinize the history of nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Capitalism · Economic history · Exhibition · Historiography · Industrial Revolution · Nationalism · Period (music · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Central European national history · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · History · Law