Metallic Modern

Everyday Machines in Colonial Sri Lanka
1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-1-78238-242-3
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, 192 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 437 g

Everyday life in the Crown colony of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) was characterized by a direct encounter of people with modernity through the consumption and use of foreign machines – in particular, the Singer sewing machine, but also the gramophone, tramway, bicycle and varieties of industrial equipment. The ‘metallic modern’ of the 19th and early 20th century Ceylon encompassed multiple worlds of belonging and imagination; and enabled diverse conceptions of time to coexist through encounters with Siam, the United States and Japan as well as a new conception of urban space in Colombo. Metallic Modern describes the modern as it was lived and experienced by non-elite groups – tailors, seamstresses, shopkeepers, workers – and suggests that their idea of the modern was nurtured by a changing material world.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wickramasinghe, Nira

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kolonialgeschichte, Geschichte des Imperialismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations and Maps

Preface and Acknowledgements

Introduction: Exploring Sri Lanka’s modern: Multiple Loops of Belonging

Chapter 1. Following the Singer Sewing Machine: Fashioning a market in a British Crown Colony

Chapter 2. Creating a Market Imaginary

Chapter 3. Paths to a Buddhist modern: From Siam to America

Chapter 4. Gramophone. Soulful Sounds and Sacred Speeches

Chapter 5. An Asian Modern. Japan

Chapter 6. Trams, Cars, Bicycles: Modern Machines in the City

Chapter 7. A Tailor’s Tale and Machines in the Home

Chapter 8. Working like Machines

Conclusion: Metallic Modern

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Wickramasinghe, Nira
Nira Wickramasinghe is Professor and Chair of Modern South Asian Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Her most recent books are Sri Lanka in the Modern  Age. A History of Contested Identities (2006) and L’Invention du Vêtement National au Sri Lanka. Habiller le corps colonise (2006).