Architectural Identities

'In Architectural Identities, Andrea Kaston Tange has brought together a splendid set of seemingly disparate materials related to domestic architecture in the Victorian era and shown, persuasively and with brilliant effect, how they inform each other. Beautifully written and original, this study is a pleasure to read.' -- Devoney Looser, Department of English, University of Missouri-Columbia 'Architectural Identities effectively examines the relationship between domestic ideology and household space in both theory and practice. With skilful readings, copious research, and polished prose, Andrea Kaston Tange reaches new and fascinating conclusions about domesticity, marriage, and family life in the Victorian era.' -- Teresa Mangum, Department of English, University of Iowa

Including analyses of both canonical and lesser-known Victorian authors, Architectural Identities connects the physical construction of the home with the symbolic construction of middle-class identities.

Architectural Identities links Victorian constructions of middle-class identity with domestic architecture. In close readings of a wide range of texts, including fiction, autobiography, housekeeping manuals, architectural guides and floor plans, Andrea Kaston Tange argues that the tensions at the root of middle-class self-definition were built into the very homes that people occupied.

Individual chapters examine the essential identities associated with particular domestic spaces, such as the dining room and masculinity, the drawing room and femininity, and the nursery and childhood. Autobiographical materials by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Linley and Marion Sambourne offer useful counterpoints to the evidence assembled from fiction, demonstrating how and where members of the middle classes remodelled the boundaries of social categories to suit their particular needs. Including analyses of both canonical and lesser-known Victorian authors, Architectural Identities connects the physical construction of the home with the symbolic construction of middle-class identities.