Love objects : emotion, design, and material culture

How Are Love And Emotion Embodied In Material Form? Love Objects Explores The Emotional Potency Of Things, Addressing How Objects Can Function As Fetishes, Symbols And Representations, Active Participants In And Mediators Of Our Relationships, As Well As Tokens Of Affection, Symbols Of Virility, Triggers Of Nostalgia, Replacements For Lost Loved Ones, And Symbols Of Lost Places And Times. Addressing Both Designed 'things With Attitude' And The 'wild Things' Of Material Culture, Love Objects Explores A Wide Range Of Objects, From 19th-century American Portraits Displaying Men's Passionate Friendships To The Devotional And Political Meanings Of Religious Statues In 1920s Ireland. List Of Illustrations -- Notes On Contributors -- Editors' Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction. How Do I Love Thee? : Objects Of Endearment In Contemporary Culture / Victor Margolin -- Section 1. The Lives Of Objects. 1. 'i Love Giving Presents' : The Emotion Of Material Culture / Louise Purbrick ; 2. (s)mother's Love, Or, Baby Knitting / Jo Turney ; 3. Sex, Birth And Nurture Unto Death : Patching Together Quilted Bed Covers / Catherine Harper -- Section 2. Projecting And Subverting Identities. 4. Bringing Out The Past : Courtly Cruising And Nineteenth-century American Men's Romantic Friendship Portraits / Elizabeth Howie ; 5. The Genteel Craft Of Subversion : Amateur Female Shoemaking In The Late Eighteenth And Early Nineteenth Centuries / Noreen Mcguire ; 6. Performing Masculinity Through Objects In Postwar America : The Playboy's Pipe / Jessica Sewell -- Section 3. Objects And Embodiment. 7. Seduced By The Archive : A Personal And Working Relationship With The Archive And Collection Of The London Couturier, Norman Hartnell / Jane Hattrick ; 8. Kitsch, Enchantment And Power : The Bleeding Statues Of Templemore In 1920 / Ann Wilson ; 9. 'magic Toyshops' : Narrative And Meaning In The Women's Sex Shop / Fran Carter -- Section 4. Mediating Relationships. 10. Material Memories : The Making Of A Collodion Memory-text / Christina Edwards ; 11. The Problematic Decision To Live : Irish-romanian Home-making And The Anthropology Of Uncertainty / Adam Drazin ; 12. Designing Meaningfu And Lasting User Experiences / Jonathan Chapman -- Bibliography -- Index. Edited By Anna Moran And Sorcha O'brien. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.