CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2012
| Author | Cristache, Maria |
|---|---|
| Title | China Sets and Crystal Cups: Material Traces of the Socialist Past in Romanian Homes |
| Summary | In this paper I analyze the biography of china, crystal and silverware originating in the last decades of the socialist regime in Romania. I look at the trajectory of these objects in terms of their use and significance in order to determine what made them so important back then and what do they represent now for Romanians. I start by discussing the theoretical perspectives on which my research is based: the active role of material culture, the biographical approach and the specificities of consumption and the domestic sphere in socialism. In the first part of the analysis I look into the sources of acquisition and the uses of these objects. In the second part I explore the relation between these objects and the dwelling places specific to socialism and post socialism. I conclude with the idea that these domestic objects speak about larger scale changes in Romania and with the observation that they follow a path from “affordable” to “obsolete” luxury. |
| Supervisor | Alexandra Kowalski, Jean Louis Fabiani |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2012/cristache_maria.pdf |
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