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In the late nineteenth century, while China was being subjected to various forms of Western imperial expansion, luxury Chinese items such as embroidered robes and carved wood furniture were widely available to British shoppers through the Oriental section of department stores. This article explores how such Chinese things were sold in London department stores between 1890 and 1940, in a survey of the catalogues of Liberty, Whiteley's and Debenham and Freebody. In a re-examination of the way in which theories of Orientalism have been applied to department store histories, the specificity of Sino-British relations during the early twentieth century, and the socially exclusive nature of some of the Chinese goods being marketed, reveals the multivalent role of Chinese products in the generation of a range of British identities. The femininity of the department store context is mapped against notions of the Orient, and notions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ design, where London's West End shopping space was also imperial space. In particular, the notion of a colonial nostalgia for ‘old China’ becomes especially relevant in the articulation of a dynamic set of British class identities, constructed through the ownership of culturally elite Chinese products.

The first three decades of the 20th century saw a European fascination with all things Chinese. Chinese butterflies, flowers, dragons and landscapes appeared on wallpapers and upholstery; for women, the trend included the wearing of dresses, robes, coats and capes incorporating Chinese motifs and traditional Chinese garment shapes, Chinese earrings and even Chinese hairstyles. A range of embroidered Chinese textiles became fashionable within European homes, such as circles of embroidery used to decorate furniture. There was, however, particular interest in Chinese embroidered ‘dragon robes’, associated with the old Chinese court. At this time in China, many forms of traditional dress

This thesis explores the role of Chinese things in the lives of women in Britain from the end of the nineteenth century until the mid-1930s. Of central concern is the way in which British femininities were constructed through the domestic ownership of Chinese objects. Considering a range of 'feminine' engagements with Chinese material culture, this study also enquires into imperialistic twentieth-century nostalgias for 'Old China' and the cultural status of Chinese objects in the social construction of feminine identities. Chapter One outlines the aims and scope of the thesis. Then, beginning with the availability of Chinese commodities to British women, Chapter Two examines the retailing of Chinese goods in Britain, focusing on the London department stores of Liberty's, Whiteley's and Debenham and Freebody's. Chapter Three explores an alternative source of Chinese goods, the missionary sale and exhibition, which offered significant opportunities to women of all classes for contact with things from China. The fourth chapter considers the gendering of Chinese things when incorporated into British domestic interiors, including the creation of 'Chinese' rooms, and the wearing of 'Chinese' costume as fashionable dress. Chapter Five focuses on the Pekingese dog, a breed whose ownership was explicitly gendered 'female' and which was bred in Britain from specimens said to have been stolen from Chinese palaces. Chapter Six turns to the subject of collectors, presenting two contrasting case studies: Lady Ellen Thomas-Stanford (1848-1932), who created a uniquely obsessive collection of Chinese ceramic lions, and Queen Mary (1867-1953), whose interest in Chinese jades and 'Chinese' interiors became incorporated into her public identity as Queen Consort. Finally, Chapter Seven reflects on the thesis as a whole, and considers some other potential avenues for future development.

This study investigates the presence of the genre of psalms in Tsvetaeva's poetry by means of Alastaire Fowler's theory of the historical persistence of literary genres throughout history. The main argument is that in her intertextual use of psalms Tsvetaeva develops further some of their typical features such as the expression of bafflement at God's passivity or an over-familiarity in addressing God; although these features are already present in psalms, they are not given a full-blown realisation because of the religious restrictions reigning at the time and context in which they were written. Chapter One presents the theoretical tools used in this research, namely the concomitant concepts of intertextuality and genre: intertextuality focuses on how texts differ from one another, while genre theory highlights the resemblance existing between a set of texts. Taken together these concepts offer a balanced and multisided approach. Chapter Two presents the psalms and outlines its importance in Russian poetry. It also discusses Tsvetaeva's spiritual outlook. Chapter Three demonstrates that the integration of the generic intertext of psalms into Tsvetaeva's poetry results in the modification of their praying function: Tsvetaeva's psalm-like praises to God contain a veiled expression of doubt that is absent from the Psalter; another change of the praying function of psalms performed in Tsvetaeva's poetry consists in the implicit denunciation of the absence of a feminine voice. Chapter Four shows that Tsvetaeva's mixture of the psalmic intertext with the genre of diary-writing, epistolary writing and folk songs create a fruitful interaction between the universal tone of the psalmist and the private concerns voiced in diary, letters or folk laments. Chapter Five shows that in her poetry Tsvetaeva develops further some typical features of psalms such as the theme of the sacred land and that of God's passivity.

Published to accompany the exhibition 'China Chic', a major exhibition of Chinese fashion held at Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, in spring 1999.