Soap and Water

Victoria Kelley teaches posgraduate students at the Royal College of Art, London, and the University for the Creative Arts, UK.

• IntroductionChapter OneMonday Washday- class and the ideal organisation of cleanliness 1. Cleanliness, Dirt and Health-Dirty cities-Invisible germs2. Cleanliness, Dirt and the Boundaries of Class-Cleanliness and anthropology -Observing the dirty poor-Metaphors of purity and filth-Other and unimaginable men-Wives and mothers3. Order and Repetition in the Work of Cleanliness-Ordering the tasks of cleanliness in everyday life -Regularity and order-Rhythms, cycles and the myths of everyday lifeChapter TwoThe Place Where My Mother Could Always be Found- working-class domesticity, gender and cleanliness1. The Material Practice of Cleanliness-An anatomy of dirt-Washing-Bathing-Cleaning2. Mother and Home-Home in everyday life -The idealised mother -For love and money-Children helping-Cleanliness, dirt and the spatial arrangement of the home3. Cleanliness and Working-class ConsumptionChapter ThreeNo Rubbing, No Scrubbing - cleanliness in commercial discourse1. Soap -Soap as a product of ‘universal consumption’ -Soap brands and advertising techniques2. An Analysis of Soap Advertising, 1880-1914-Advertising and the periodical-Soap, the sea and invisible germs-Thrift, regularity and pleasure-Women’s work in soap advertisements-The consuming wife and mother3. A Sunlight DemonstrationConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex