ABSTRACT
This book addresses the multifaceted history of the domestic sphere in Europe from the Age of Reformation to the emergence of modern society. By focusing on daily practice, interaction and social relations, it shows continuities and social change in European history from an interior perspective.
The Routledge History of the Domestic Sphere in Europe contains a variety of approaches from different regions that each pose a challenge to commonplace views such as the emergence of confessional cultures, of private life, and of separate spheres of men and women. By analyzing a plethora of manifold sources including diaries, court records, paintings and domestic advice literature, this volume provides an overview of the domestic sphere as a location of work and consumption, conflict and cooperation, emotions and intimacy, and devotion and education. The book sheds light on changing relations between spouses, parents and children, masters and servants or apprentices, and humans and animals or plants, thereby exceeding the notion of the modern nuclear family.
This volume will be of great use to upper-level graduates, postgraduates and experienced scholars interested in the history of family, household, social space, gender, emotions, material culture, work and private life in early modern and nineteenth-century Europe.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |22 pages
Introduction
part I|36 pages
Language and discourse
part II|40 pages
Legal settings and domestic hierarchies
part III|56 pages
The domestic sphere as space of work
part IV|42 pages
Leisure and sociability
part V|38 pages
Consumption and material culture
part VI|34 pages
Domestic conflict and violence
part VII|35 pages
Emotions and intimacy
part VIII|39 pages
Child-rearing and education
part IX|36 pages
Privacy and the emergence of separate spheres?
part X|34 pages
Semi-public spaces
part XI|38 pages
The domestic sphere as a religious space
part XII|40 pages
Health and food preparation
part XIII|31 pages
Animals and plants
part XIV|49 pages
Images and identity constructs