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Comfort in Small Things? Clothing, Control and Agency in County Lunatic Asylums in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century England
| Content Provider | Scilit |
|---|---|
| Author | Hamlett, Jane Hoskins, Lesley |
| Copyright Year | 2013 |
| Description | Journal: Journal of Victorian Culture This article examines clothing in public lunatic asylums in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century England. It considers the intentions of the authorities but also explores patient experience and agency, which have been notoriously difficult to access. Publicly funded (pauper) patients had to give up their own clothes and wear the asylum's standard apparel. Asylum authorities did not envision this as a uniform, either honorific or punitive, and claimed that imposed dress was intended to improve patients' behaviour and assist recovery. There was growing awareness that variety in dress could be beneficial and there were calls for some pauper patients to be allowed to wear their own clothes, but this was ultimately impractical within the economy of mass provision in the public asylum. Although clothing might have offered comfort to the impoverished, some patients were angered and humiliated by its imposition. Ill-fitting items and rough fabrics could be a daily, bodily, reminder to the wearers of the shame of their status as insane paupers. It did, however, offer some room for self-fashioning. Patients were able to make small but, in the circumstances, telling adjustments to the way they wore their clothes and their hair. If it was considered safe, they were allowed some minor possessions. Certain of these items, like spectacles and false teeth, were vital to basic agency and independence. Others, such as jewellery – and especially wedding rings – could help maintain a vital link with relationships in the outside world. |
| Related Links | https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/28899998.pdf https://academic.oup.com/jvc/article-pdf/18/1/93/22327378/jvcult0093.pdf |
| ISSN | 13555502 |
| e-ISSN | 17500133 |
| DOI | 10.1080/13555502.2012.744241 |
| Journal | Journal of Victorian Culture |
| Issue Number | 1 |
| Volume Number | 18 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited |
| Publisher Date | 2013-03-01 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Journal: Journal of Victorian Culture |
| Content Type | Text |
| Subject | History Cultural Studies Visual Arts and Performing Arts Literature and Literary Theory |
