ARTH 925 - Fashion and Identities of the British Empire

FC ARHU CD

4 credits
This course will examine the significance of fashion in expressing and determining people’s place in society across the British Empire, including the British Isles, India, Jamaica, parts of Africa and the West Indies. We will trace the long, complex and fraught history of multiculturalism in Britain through the medium of clothing. We will explore how the political ambitions of the British Empire were exercised and expressed through styles of clothing and the fabrics they were made from (where they came from; their industries; their social and political significance). And we will examine the many cases of resistance expressed by people in the British isles and its colonies through fashion. The course will focus in particular on the early modern era (c.1500-1750), but this material will be brought into dialogue with contemporary issues.