جسد الموضة: الموضة والملبس ونظرية الاجتماع المعاصرة

by Joanne Entwistle, علي عبد الصمد (Translator )

يُعد هذا الكتاب من الأعمال النظرية المهمة لسبره أغوار العلاقة المركبة ما بين الموضة والملبس من جهة وبين النظرية الاجتماعية المعاصرة من جهةأخرى. ويقدم الكتاب استكشافاً شاملاً للكيفية التي تشكل فيها الموضة الجسد في ظل القوى الاجتماعية والثقافية المختلفة. إذ تنطلق الكاتبة بوضع الموضة والملبس ضمن السياق الأوسع للنظرية الاجتماعية الحديثة، مع التركيز على أهميتها كأشكال رمزية لا تعكس الهويات والمعاني الاجتماعية فحسب، بل تبنها أيضاً بشكل فعّال ويسلّط الكتاب الضوء على التفاعل الديناميكي بين الفاعلية الفردية والبُنى الاجتماعية في عملية تشكيل الجسد واستكناه كذلك كيفية توافق الأفراد مع الأعراف المجتمعية أو مقاومتها من خلال خياراتهم في الملبس وفق المحدّدات الثقافية والاقتصادية والجندرية على حد سواء.ومن بين المواضيع الرئيسة التي ناقشها الكتاب هو مفهوم "الجسد المعبرعنه بالأزياء"، الذي يشير إلى الجسد كموقع للنقاش الثقافي والتحوّل من خلال ممارسات الملبس عبر أشكاله المتعدّدة التي تتدخل الإثنوغرافيا والثيوقراطيا في بلورتها. وتعزّز الكاتبة رؤاها عن فلسفة عمل الموضة كآلية قوية لانضباط وتنظيم الجسد، عبر أعمال "فوكو" من بين فلاسفة عديدين بغية ضبط مفاهيم الجمال والجنس والطبقة والهوية. ومن خلال تحليل الأمثلة التاريخية والمعاصرة، توضح كيف تطوّرت اتجاهات الموضة مع مرور الوقت، مما يعكس المواقف الاجتماعية المتغيّرة والديناميكيات السياسية المؤثرة.وفضلاً عن ذلك، تبحث الكاتبة في دور صناعة الأزياء والإعلام وثقافة المستهلك في تشكيل تصوّرات الجسد ونشر معايير الجمال وفق سياقات زمنية معينة.

Genres: Fashion, Nonfiction, Sociology, Fashion History, Research, Cultural

Paperback

First published July 26, 2000

About the author

Jo Entwistle is Senior Lecturer in Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King’s College London.

Reviews

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entwistle starts from the basic position that there are significant and serious gaps in fashion-linked scholarship: on the one hand we have design and related issues framed through either art history or a semiotic bent in cultural studies (so style and image centred), and on the other we have business focussed studies of clothing and fashion companies but that do not consider consumption or related cultural & sociological questions. Her conclusion is that there are two gaps – fashion, dress and clothing as lived experience (so we need to inject the body into sociologies of fashion) and the linkage of production and consumption. These are huge gaps that she sets out to fill, and is much more successful at the former (fashion/clothing as embodied practice) than she is at the latter. This is partly a result of the balance of content – there are about 25 pages on the fashion industry, 140 or so on historical and contemporary meanings of embodied fashion plus nearly 80 exploring the theoretical justification for considering embodiment as central to making sense of fashion and clothing. Consequently, the brief production-consumption linkage element of the analysis is more tantalising than satisfying, suggesting many more questions than it does answers – but the case for considering embodiment is extremely good, historically savvy, and insightful. Now, I’d just like her to do the same thing with the industry.

[J Go Outside · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I began this book I suspected that fashion studies was unencompassable in any one discipline, narrative, or book. Ultimately that is both argued and demonstrated by Entwistle, who actually gets rly close. Embodiment as the nexus of 'fashion system', everyday dress practices, and social-economic formations is a practical solution to the hybrid object of fashion studies.

More than anything I think this book WAS a landmark and IS a good guide to thinking productively about/thru fashion, but so much research has been done since 2000 that basically all the features of the landscape have changed.

[Garron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entwistle's work is quite complete and brings winderful viewpoint that connects socio-historical and cultural aspects to the forefront in a more inclusive way

However, the book itselfnis extremly dry. Even with a strong background in academia, this was extremely dry. Put it down 3/4 of the way through a year ago.

[T.R. Ormond · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the 2nd edition

[Luiza Andrade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to read as there are many questions here, lots of thinking to do and a lot to study. This book is absolutely amazing and I strongly recommend it to anyone who's interested in studying fashion in general - whether it's business, history, culture or whatever.

[Jana · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Understanding the body in culture requires understanding both how the textual body (the body articulated in discourses produced by texts, such as the fashion magazine) relates to the experience of embodiment (the body articulated in everyday life through experiences and practices of dress)."

This is the starting and finishing point of this book, which explores the connection between fashion and identity. It's a very good introduction to fashion theory (I did need it!) and it clarifies concepts like embodiment according to Foucault, or gender performativity according to Butler, or desire according to Freud, which makes it approachable without philosophical/identity theory background. It also includes a brief history of Western fashion and makes a point of relating aesthetics to actual politics and economic practices, which is great. My only complaints are that it is a bit repetitive (that's better if you are only interested in a chapter) and that some parts could have used a bit more depth. Still, it's a very good introduction and it's thankfully readable.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a book about Gaultier, Chanel, all the other prestigious designers, not so much about haute couture and barely mentions Charles Fredrick Worth the father of haute couture. Still, this ended up being far better than just a common retell of the history of fashion.

Joanne Entwistle introduces many other considerations including industry, history, identity, social class, gender discourse, cultural production blablabla... a lot of jargons but the easiest way to convey it is that the content can be categorised into two major sections:
- one section that considers fashion in sociological terms supplied with strong points about its interaction with the body
- another section that considers fashion in terms of being a commodity industry / cultural industry

Just a very thought provoking book overall that extends into many other studies, I enjoyed it and it increased my fundamental understanding of fashion as a whole, beyond the aesthetics - I thought the chapters intersected very well and the delivery was very concise

[Katrina Sark · Rating 2 out of 5]

p.1 – Fashion is about bodies: it is produced, promoted and worn by bodies. It is the body that fashion speaks to and it is the body that must be dressed in almost all social encounters.