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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
informative
slow-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
informative
medium-paced
I really enjoyed reading this - it actually made me realize how much I miss reading academic work after college. I think most chapters were approachable and easy to understand, even when addressing more complex concepts, and I think it was easy to make the connections between gender roles and expecatations and the embroidery work presented within, there were times I wished we talked more about individual pieces though. It also talked a lot more about Christianity and medieval history than I would have imagined, though because I am also interested in these topics this wasn't a drawback for me. Overall, I think if the concept intrigues you at all you should give this book a try, though it is definitely more academic if that is not something you are used to.
informative
reflective
Rozsika Parker's The Subversive Stitch is a pretty academic work, illustrated with lots of plates (though these are in black and white and not really of the greatest quality, at least in the edition I have. Parker's thesis is basically that embroidery was a huge part of how femininity was constructed, particularly in the Victorian era, and we've seen a lot of things both deeper in the past and now through that lens.
No doubt there's more up to date work now, but I'm under the impression this is a bit of a classic. It can be dry, especially if you're not interested in the subject -- as I mentioned, it really is pretty academic. But there are some fascinating insights here, and also some correctives to received wisdom about what exactly the history of embroidery has been like. Solid lesson: don't believe a Victorian source, possibly not even about Victorian norms.
Perhaps more of interest to those interested in feminist and women's history than to those interested in embroidery per se.
No doubt there's more up to date work now, but I'm under the impression this is a bit of a classic. It can be dry, especially if you're not interested in the subject -- as I mentioned, it really is pretty academic. But there are some fascinating insights here, and also some correctives to received wisdom about what exactly the history of embroidery has been like. Solid lesson: don't believe a Victorian source, possibly not even about Victorian norms.
Perhaps more of interest to those interested in feminist and women's history than to those interested in embroidery per se.
[just dnf ing for now, ive read like 2/3 chapters of this so far]
this is my main literature for my master thesis :) crying laughing
definitely have more insight after my second read
definitely have more insight after my second read
4 stars for the sheer amount of research; unfortunately the images are not very good quality and are black and white. The book really should be titled something like, The Subservient Stitch: the Link Between Embroidery and Women in the U.K. Since the Middle Ages. But obviously that's too long and not catchy or intriguing enough.
This book is a fascinating look at the changing motifs in embroidery and the role needlework played in reflecting, reinforcing, and serving the shifting ideologies of femininity and sex roles in Britain. Sometimes her analysis seemed oversimplified or conjectured; and the chapters were a bit meandering at times, with misleading chapter titles. For example, one chapter is called 'Femininity as Feeling', but only had one paragraph related to that idea, whereas the uniting theme of the chapter was the 19th century. All the chapters are basically organized by century and delve into each period's changes in embroidery motifs and shifting societal norms. I noticed a problem with that running throughout the book - she notes it herself at one point:
In other words, you can try to analyze this history through a feminist lens, but developments in say, religious ideas (like Protestantism) affected shifts in needlework imagery as much as the fluctuations in ideas about femininity. It's an interrelated, complex puzzle.
This book is a fascinating look at the changing motifs in embroidery and the role needlework played in reflecting, reinforcing, and serving the shifting ideologies of femininity and sex roles in Britain. Sometimes her analysis seemed oversimplified or conjectured; and the chapters were a bit meandering at times, with misleading chapter titles. For example, one chapter is called 'Femininity as Feeling', but only had one paragraph related to that idea, whereas the uniting theme of the chapter was the 19th century. All the chapters are basically organized by century and delve into each period's changes in embroidery motifs and shifting societal norms. I noticed a problem with that running throughout the book - she notes it herself at one point:
As ever with embroidery it is important to establish how far the choice of subject matter was determined by the general social, political, and artistic developments of the time and how far women's specific experience and the history of embroidery dictated the needlewomen's choice.
In other words, you can try to analyze this history through a feminist lens, but developments in say, religious ideas (like Protestantism) affected shifts in needlework imagery as much as the fluctuations in ideas about femininity. It's an interrelated, complex puzzle.
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced