ENGLISH

The Vacuum Cleaner: A Cultural Investigation

By Maud Ellmann

Book information

Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
Year
2024
ISBN
3031566661, 9783031566660
Language
english
Format
EPUB
Filesize
23 MB (24389153 bytes)
Series
Material Modernisms
Pages
120\0
Time added
2024-09-19 09:42:36

Description

This book offers an entertaining study of the facts and fantasies associated with the vacuum cleaner as it evolved from a luxury gimmick to a household necessity. The iconic appliance of twentieth-century domestic revolution, the vacuum cleaner stands at the forefront of radical changes in technology, automation, finance, marketing, hygiene, infrastructure, time-management, domestic labour, and the history of dirt. This appliance also insinuates itself into the dominant phobias of the period, including totalitarianism and nuclear war. Maud Ellmann shows how modern literature, art, and other media have transformed this humble domestic mod con into a curmudgeon, windbag, cannibal, vampire, dictator, infanticidal mother, freedom fighter, mantrap, and lothario.

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