Devilish Matter: The History of Stripes and Striped Fabrics
9.99 €
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The title of this book sounds intriguing: can stripes really have a history of their own? M. Pastoureau answers this question in the affirmative: their history, which he traces up to the end of the 20th century, is full of the most incredible events. Each epoch gave rise to new practices and cultural codes, and the systems of meanings associated with stripes, both materially and symbolically, became more and more complex. During the Middle Ages, striped clothing was perceived as something low-class, outrageous, or even simply diabolical. During the Renaissance and Romanticism, the "correct" stripes - signs of holidays and symbols of freedom - became widespread. Modern culture has adopted all the practices and codes of previous eras: "devilish" connotations (striped clothing of death camp prisoners) or signaling danger (zebra and other road markings); stripes associated with hygiene (bed sets and underwear), sports (professional equipment), games, etc. Pastoureau's semiology of stripes is seen primarily in a social context and serves only as an approximation to an encyclopedia yet to be written. Michel Pastoureau is a French medievalist historian and professor at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris.
See also:
- All books by the publisher
- All books by the author
- All books in the series Library of the magazine "Fashion Theory"
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