Introduction

Through a focus on the personal and intimate “small” scale, the authors in this section explore how the textual and textural layers of private domestic interiors are metaphorically, subversively, or overtly intertwined with broader public values, collective memory-making, or national ideologies. From bedding to refrigerators and ephemera to tools, elements of domestic interiors discussed in this section function beyond their intended use, appropriated as vehicles of invented (and reinvented) narratives. Turney and Gola discuss the role of image-making in connecting private and national values. Yildirim and Bártolo examine how communal heritage represented through domestic objects and spaces is appropriated (and reappropriated) to serve state interests or subvert them. Across global contexts, the four authors reveal how the (re)invented language of private interiors—elements, arrangement, and message—participate in the construction and legitimization of personal and collective identities.