Fashioning the historical body: the political economy of denim

摘要

In this cultural history of denim's emergence as a ubiquitous fashion element, coveted global commodity, and pre-eminent national icon, I argue that denim's significance derives not from its celebrated comfort and utility, nor from its symbolic value, but rather from its ability to naturalize the body through a uniquely historicizing experience of utility itself. Denim not only memorializes the history of the lived body in its patterns of fading and fraying, it also locates that body within a nationalist historiography plotted in terms of the interlocking figures of the laborer, the cowboy, and the countercultural rebel. Denim thus fashions the body as a potentially political site of authenticity and self-possession that is both culturally mediated yet also imagined to be liberated from the symbolic demands of culture itself. Such a reading of denim thus calls for a rethinking of the Marxist conception of the commodity fetish, while also complicating scholarly understandings of clothing as a semiotic instrument of self-expression.View full textDownload full textKeywordsdenim, embodiment, fetishism, national types, class, historicization, fashionRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10350331003722851