My Life with Things

The Consumer Diaries

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Cultural Studies, Ethnic Studies, Anthropology
Cover of the book My Life with Things by Elizabeth Chin, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Elizabeth Chin ISBN: 9780822374268
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: May 19, 2016
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: Elizabeth Chin
ISBN: 9780822374268
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: May 19, 2016
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

Unconventional and provocative, My Life with Things is Elizabeth Chin's meditation on her relationship with consumer goods and a critical statement on the politics and method of anthropology. Chin centers the book on diary entries that focus on everyday items—kitchen cabinet knobs, shoes, a piano—and uses them to intimately examine the ways consumption resonates with personal and social meaning: from writing love haikus about her favorite nail polish and discussing the racial implications of her tooth cap, to revealing how she used shopping to cope with a miscarriage and contemplating how her young daughter came to think that she needed Lunesta. Throughout, Chin keeps Karl Marx and his family's relationship to their possessions in mind, drawing parallels between Marx's napkins, the production of late nineteenth-century table linens, and Chin's own vintage linen collection. Unflinchingly and refreshingly honest, Chin unlocks the complexities of her attachments to, reliance on, and complicated relationships with her things. In so doing, she prompts readers to reconsider their own consumption, as well as their assumptions about the possibilities for creative scholarship.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Unconventional and provocative, My Life with Things is Elizabeth Chin's meditation on her relationship with consumer goods and a critical statement on the politics and method of anthropology. Chin centers the book on diary entries that focus on everyday items—kitchen cabinet knobs, shoes, a piano—and uses them to intimately examine the ways consumption resonates with personal and social meaning: from writing love haikus about her favorite nail polish and discussing the racial implications of her tooth cap, to revealing how she used shopping to cope with a miscarriage and contemplating how her young daughter came to think that she needed Lunesta. Throughout, Chin keeps Karl Marx and his family's relationship to their possessions in mind, drawing parallels between Marx's napkins, the production of late nineteenth-century table linens, and Chin's own vintage linen collection. Unflinchingly and refreshingly honest, Chin unlocks the complexities of her attachments to, reliance on, and complicated relationships with her things. In so doing, she prompts readers to reconsider their own consumption, as well as their assumptions about the possibilities for creative scholarship.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book Babes in Tomorrowland by Elizabeth Chin
Cover of the book Political Reasoning and Cognition by Elizabeth Chin
Cover of the book Challenging U.S. Apartheid by Elizabeth Chin
Cover of the book The Constitutional Logic of Affirmative Action by Elizabeth Chin
Cover of the book Indigenous Media in Mexico by Elizabeth Chin
Cover of the book Impossible Purities by Elizabeth Chin
Cover of the book Tarrying with the Negative by Elizabeth Chin
Cover of the book High Contrast by Elizabeth Chin
Cover of the book An Empire of Indifference by Elizabeth Chin
Cover of the book Matters of Gravity by Elizabeth Chin
Cover of the book Humanism and Secularization by Elizabeth Chin
Cover of the book The Eagle and the Virgin by Elizabeth Chin
Cover of the book Franklin Evans, or The Inebriate by Elizabeth Chin
Cover of the book Images at War by Elizabeth Chin
Cover of the book Unearthing Conflict by Elizabeth Chin
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy