This book offers an entertaining study of the facts and fantasies associated with the vacuum cleaner as it evolved from a luxury gimmick to a household necessity. The iconic appliance of twentieth-century domestic revolution, the vacuum cleaner stands at the forefront of radical changes in technology, automation, finance, marketing, hygiene, infrastructure, time-management, domestic labour, and the history of dirt. This appliance also insinuates itself into the dominant phobias of the period, including totalitarianism and nuclear war. Maud Ellmann shows how modern literature, art, and other media have transformed this humble domestic mod con into a curmudgeon, windbag, cannibal, vampire, dictator, infanticidal mother, freedom fighter, mantrap, and lothario.
| ISBN: | 9783031566653 |
| Publication date: | 26th July 2024 |
| Author: | Maud Ellmann |
| Publisher: | Palgrave Macmillan an imprint of Springer Nature Switzerland |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 134 pages |
| Series: | Material Modernisms |
| Genres: |
Literary studies: general Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000 Fiction |