Interiors of Empire - (Studies in Design and Material Culture) by Robin Jones (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book examines the cultural impact of colonialism on both colonizer and colonized via analysis of the domestic interiors and public spaces of empire within the Indian Subcontinent, contrasting representations of such spaces within contemporary discourse with analysis of the evidence of actual interiors and the social practices there engendered.

From the Back Cover

Interiors of Empire uses the methods of design history and material culture studies to analyse the domestic and public interiors of the British and local middle class during the heyday of the British Raj. It contrasts representations of that space within contemporary discourse with analysis of historical evidence, the varying uses of such space, and relevant social practices.

Through detailed discussion of these texts, spaces, objects and practices, this study locates the domestic interiors and public spaces of empire in the history of the British colonisation of India. The book discusses the imagined barrier of the domestic against the local environment, the intrusions of the local and the effects of this on the British in India, and assesses the gradual westernisation of domestic and public spaces of empire.

This work will be of interest to students and scholars of design history, material culture and colonial history.

Review Quotes

"This book makes a major contribution in an important and largely neglected field. It heralds the coming of age not only the study of the colonial interior but the interior more generally, a field which stands at the intersection of design history, architectural history, anthropology, cultural geography, and social and imperial history." --Professor Tim Barringer, Yale University

About the Author

Robin D. Jones is Principal Lecturer in Design History and Visual Art Studies at Southampton Solent University