Eighteenth-Century Thing Theory in a Global Context

Ileana Baird is a Postdoctoral Preceptorship Fellow at the University of Virginia, USA.Christina Ionescu is an Associate Professor of French Studies at Mount Allison University, Canada.

• Introduction: Peregrine Things: Rethinking the Global in Eighteenth-Century StudiesIleana BairdIntroduction: Through the Prism of Thing Theory: New Approaches to the Eighteenth-Century World of ObjectsChristina IonescuPart I Western European Fads: Porcelain, Fetishes, Museum Objects, Antiques1  Caution, Contents May Be Hot: A Cultural Anatomy of the Tasse TrembleuseChristine A. Jones2  Cultural Currency: Chrysal, or The Adventures of a Guinea, and the Material Shape of Eighteenth-Century CelebrityKevin Bourque3  Feather Cloaks and English Collectors: Cook’s Voyages and the Objects of the MuseumSophie Thomas4  Imagining Ancient Egypt as the Idealized Self in Eighteenth-Century EuropeKevin M. McGeoughPart II Under Eastern Eyes: Garments, Portraits, Books5  Frills and Perils of Fashion: Politics and Culture of the Eighteenth-Century Russian Court through the Eyes of La ModeVictoria Ivleva6  From Russia with Love: Souvenirs and Political Alliance in Martha Wilmot’s The Russian JournalsPamela Buck7  “The Battle of the Books” in Catherine the Great’s Russia: From a Jousting Tournament to a Tavern BrawlRimma GarnPart III Latin American Encounters: Coins, Food, Accessories, Maps8  From Peruvian Gold to British Guinea: Tropicopolitanism and Myths of Origin in Charles Johnstone’s ChrysalMauricio E. Martinez9  Eating Turtle, Eating the World: Comestible Things in the Eighteenth CenturyKrystal McMillen10 The Fur Parasol: Masculine Dress, Prosthetic Skins, and the Making of the English Umbrella in Robinson CrusoeIrene Fizer11 Terra Incognita on Maps of Eighteenth-Century Spanish America: Commodification, Consumption and the Transition from Inaccessible to Public SpaceLauren BeckPart IV Imagining Other Spaces: Trinkets, Collectibles, Ethnographic Artifacts, Scientific Objects12 (Re-)Appropriating Trinkets: How to Civilize Polynesia with a Jack-in-the-BoxLaure Marcellesi13 Images of Exotic Objects in the Abbé Prévost’s Histoire Générale des VoyagesAntoine Eche14 Souvenirs of the South Seas: Objects of Imperial Critique in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s TravelsJessica Durgan

'Readers interested in thing theory and students of material culture as discussed especially in literature will appreciate this book's efforts. Historical geographers can gain much from the interdisciplinary collaboration exhibited in this volume. Overall, the collection does highlight how humans relate to objects and convincingly displays how understanding such relationships can deepen our understanding of some aspects of the eighteenth-century world.' Journal of Historical Geography