The Wedding Present
"In The Wedding Present, Louise Purbrick offers an alternative analysis of contemporary domestic consumption. Focusing on gift-giving in Britain from 1945 to the present day, with comparative material from North America and Europe, Purbrick investigates the ritualized presentation of objects upon marriage and their subsequent cycles of exchange within the domestic sphere." "Making historical, theoretical and methodological contributions to the analysis of contemporary consumption, the book presents new material on the enactment of exchange relationships within everyday domesticity. It also re-evaluates consumption theory and examines the methodology of recent studies in consumption and domesticity, pressing for a more rigorous approach to the use of case studies." "The author tests the assumption that consuming creates individual identities, by considering how the specific contexts in which consumption occurs, such as married domesticity, can limit possible versions of selfhood. Thus, The Wedding Present, offers up an argument that consumption cannot be isolated as an explanation of individual or social formation."--Jacket.
