Synopses & Reviews
Aside from the occasional nod to epaulets or use of camouflage, war and fashion seem to be strange partners. Not so, argue the contributors to this book, who connect military industrial practices as well as military dress to textile and clothing in new ways. For instance, the book includes a series of commentaries on the impact of military dress in the airline industry, in illustrated wartime comics, and even considers todayand#8217;s muscled soldierand#8217;s body as a new type of uniform. Elsewhere, the impacts of conquest introduce a new set of postcolonial aesthetics; this is because military and colonial regimes disrupted local textile production and garment making. In another chapter, it is argued that textiles and fashion are important because they reflect a core practice, one that bridges textile artists and designers in an expressive, creative, and deeply physical way to matters of cultural significance. And the book concludes by calling the very mode of "military chic" into ethical question.
The premier text to illustrate the impact of war on textiles, bodies, costume, art, and design,and#160;Fashion and and#160;War in Popular Cultureand#160;will be warmly welcomed by scholars of fashion design and theory, historians of fashion, and those interested in theories of warfare and military science.
Synopsis
Synopsis
Anthropology has long been associated with an ethos of "engagement." The field's core methods and practices involve long-term interpersonal contact between researchers and their study participants, giving major research topics in the field a distinctively human face. Can research findings be authentic and objective? Are anthropologists able to use their data to aid the participants of their study, and is that aid always welcome?
In Engaged Observer, Victoria Sanford and Asale Angel-Ajani bring together an international array of scholars who have been embedded in some of the most conflict-ridden and dangerous zones in the world to reflect on the role and responsibility of anthropological inquiry. They explore issues of truth and objectivity, the role of the academic, the politics of memory, and the impact of race, gender, and social position on the research process. Through ethnographic case studies, they offer models for conducting engaged research and illustrate the contradictions and challenges of doing so.
Synopsis
"With this book, anthropology takes its place in the world: breaking innovative ground, creating new sensibilities, offering academic inspiration to a crisis."--Carolyn Nordstrom, professor of anthropology, University of Notre Dame "Engaged Observer includes rich ethnographic insights into the personal and social aspects of suffering and represents a significant contribution to debates on anthropological ethics and the place of advocacy in scholarship."--Richard A. Wilson, author of The Politics of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa "This engaging and compelling volume uses a wide range of case studies to suggest ways that anthropologists and other types of observers can be politically, emotionally, and personally engaged with the work they carry out."--Lynn Stephen, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, University of Oregon Anthropology has long been associated with an ethos of "engagement." The field's core methods and practices involve long-term interpersonal contact between researchers and their study participants, giving major research topics in the field a distinctively human face. Can research findings be authentic and objective? Are anthropologists able to use their data to aid the participants of their study, and is that aid always welcome? In Engaged Observer, Victoria Sanford and Asale Angel-Ajani bring together an international array of scholars who have been embedded in some of the most conflict-ridden and dangerous zones in the world to reflect the role and responsibility of anthropological inquiry. They explore issues of truth and objectivity, the role of the academic, the politics of memory, and the impact of race, gender, and social position on the research process. Through ethnographic case studies, they offer models for conducting engaged research and illustrate the contradictions and challenges of doing so. Victoria Sanford is an associate professor of anthropology at Lehman College, City University of New York. Asale Angel-Ajani is and assistant professor in the Gallatin School at New York University.
Synopsis
Anthropology has long been associated with an ethos of “engagement.” The field’s core methods and practices involve long-term interpersonal contact between researchers and their study participants, giving major research topics in the field a distinctively human face. Can research findings be authentic and objective? Are anthropologists able to use their data to aid the participants of their study, and is that aid always welcome?
In Engaged Observer, Victoria Sanford and Asale Angel-Ajani bring together an international array of scholars who have been embedded in some of the most conflict-ridden and dangerous zones in the world to reflect on the role and responsibility of anthropological inquiry. They explore issues of truth and objectivity, the role of the academic, the politics of memory, and the impact of race, gender, and social position on the research process. Through ethnographic case studies, they offer models for conducting engaged research and illustrate the contradictions and challenges of doing so.
Synopsis
Synopsis
This title begins with a series of commentaries on how the military/industrial practices have changed postcolonial or post war societies. Here, the impact of conquest determines a new postcolonial aesthetics of textile and clothing. In each study, the military and/or colonial regimes are shown to disrupt local textile production and garment-making. Textile and costume are important because they reflect one of the core practices which work as a bridge to connect textile makers in an expressive, creative and deeply physical way to matters of cultural significance. Further, this title, Fashion and War in Popular Culture, challenges the easy adoption of the military as chic.
About the Author
Denise N. Rall
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Contextualizing fashion and war within popular culture
Jennifer Craik
Overview
Denise N. Rall
Section 1: The military in popular culture
1. Representation of female wartime bravery in Australiaand#8217;s Wanda the War Girl and Jane at War from the UK
Jane Chapman
2. Fashionable fascism: Cinematic images of the Nazi before and after 9/11
Kylee M. Hartman-Warren
3. Branding the muscled male body as military costume
Heather Smith and Richard Gehrmann
Section 2: Fashion and the military
4. In the service of clothes: Else Schiaparelli and the war experience
Annita Boyd
5. The discipline of appearance: Military style and Australian flight hostess uniforms 1930-1964
Prudence Black
6. Models, medals, and the use of military emblems in fashion
Amanda Laugesen
Section 3: Framing youth fashion, textile artworks and postcolonial costume in the context of conflict
7. Battle dressed and#8211; clothing the criminal, or the horror of the and#8216;hoodieand#8217; in Britain
Joanne Turney
8. Dutch wax and display: London and the art of Yinka Shonibare
Davinia Gregory
9. Costume and conquest: Introducing a proximity framework for post-war impacts on textile and fashion
Denise N. Rall
Afterword: The military in contemporary fashion
Denise N. Rall
Contributors