Mass-Observation and visual culture : depicting everyday lives in Britain / Lucy D. Curzon.

Author
Curzon, Lucy D. [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
  • Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, 2017.
  • ©2017
Description
xii, 178 pages, 4 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 26 cm.

Availability

Copies in the Library

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Marquand Library - Remote Storage: Marquand Use OnlyN8219.L2 C87 2017 Browse related items Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Series
    • British art. Histories and interpretations since 1700 [More in this series]
    • British art: hstories and interpretations since 1700
    Summary note
    Mass-Observation and Visual Culture: Depicting Everyday Lives in Britain' critically analyses the role that visual culture played in the early development of Mass-Observation, the innovative British anthropological research group founded in 1937. The group's production and use of painting, collage, photography, and other media illustrates not only the broad scope of Mass-Observation's efforts to document everyday life, but also, more specifically, the centrality of visual elements to its efforts at understanding national identity in the 1930s. Although much interest has previously focused on Mass-Observation's use of written reports and opinion surveys, as well as diaries that were kept by hundreds of volunteer observers, this book is the first full-length study of the group's engagement with visual culture. 0Exploring the paintings of Graham Bell and William Coldstream; the photographs of Humphrey Spender; the paintings, collages, and photographs of Julian Trevelyan; and Humphrey Spender's photographs and widely recognized 'Mass-Observation film', Spare Time, among other sources, Mass-Observation and Visual Culture: Depicting Everyday Lives in Britain positions these works as key sources of information with regard to illuminating the complex character of British identity during the Depression era.
    Notes
    "An Ashgate Book"--Cover.
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references and index.
    Contents
    • Introduction: Unprofessional painting: Mass-Observation and visual culture
    • 1. Another place in time: Humphrey Spender's northern photographs
    • 2. Julian Trevelyan: 'Jekyll' and 'Hyde'
    • 3. The Euston Road in worktown
    • 4. Imagining the nation: May the Twelfth and Spare Time
    • Epilogue: 'Signs that say what you want them to say': Mass-Observation in contemporary contexts.
    ISBN
    • 9781472436504 ((hardback))
    • 1472436504 ((hardback))
    LCCN
    2017285587
    OCLC
    966560171
    Statement on language in description
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