Advice and Advisers in Xenophon’s Anabasis
by Tim Rood
In D. J. Spencer and E. M. Theodorakopoulos (eds), Advice and its Rhetoric in Greece and Rome (Nottingham Classical Literature Studies 9; Bari, 2007), 47-61.
Download (.pdf) 'Belonging and Belongings: Etiquette Writing as Design Discourse 1920-1970'
In Making and Unmaking, ed. Tim Putnam, Valerie Swales and Ruth Facey, 102-117 (Portsmouth: University of Portsmouth, 2000).
For Norbert Elias, writing in 1939, the apparatus of the home had lessened in social importance as it had become... more For Norbert Elias, writing in 1939, the apparatus of the home had lessened in social importance as it had become increasingly private, but in recent years the home has been reconsidered as ‘the principal site where material culture is appropriated in mutual relationships’. This paper tracks the shift from the former view to the latter through examination of the type of advice literature which addresses the fusion of the social and the material, including etiquette literature and the literature of home entertaining and home decoration. Following a discussion of advice writing as a strain of design discourse, the paper considers how readers were reconciled with a new modernist challenge to extant conceptions of comfortable hospitality and status display by using a small selection of advice texts as representative of the wider literature. As well as referring to some key related design historical texts, the paper makes use of the theories of Elias, Goffman and Bourdieu. In contrast to the reification of power typical of courtly etiquette, the mid 20th century witnessed social changes attendant upon economic and cultural reorganisation that effected the way home entertaining was conducted. The declining influence of aristocratic modes of taste in favour of a flatter social model encompassed a shift from service culture to self-service culture, and a changing geography of home entertaining. From 1920 to 1970, the home opened up, modifying the way its parts were conceptualised in advice literature as public and private, front and backstage. Importantly, the gradual acceptance of modern domestic design led to a waning of earlier modes of status-display through luxury to a general aestheticization of everyday life.
From service to self-service: etiquette writing as design discourse 1920-1970
The Journal of Design History, vol. 14, no. 3 (2001), pp. 187-206.
This article examines examples of advice literature published in Britain for what they indicate about changes in the... more
This article examines examples of advice literature published in Britain for what they indicate about changes in the materil culture of home enteraining from 1920 to 1970 Advice writing offers ideal model of design consumption attentive to social behaviour and reflective of reader concerns A theoretical framework for the fusion of the social and material in a domestic seetting is forged through reference to the work of Nobert Elias,Erving Goffman and Pierre Bourdien Elias's 1939 work The Civilising Process illuminates pre-industrial etiquette,Goffman's 1959 The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life bridges the movement away from such a model, and Bourdien's 1969 Distinction assists understanding of the reception of modernist design A pre-industrial courty model of ornament and luxury apparently jarred with the comparative austenity embodied in‘high’ modernism and popular idioms such as moderne and contemporary Modern design was recommended in advice literature, therefore,as contributing new ideals to the comfort of a social setting flexibility, youth,practically,thrift,hygiene,economies of space,fashionability and etiquette ideals of dignity,luxury and comfort,pointing to a new appreciation of the beauty of utility grounded in the aestheticization of everyday life that modified the visual language of status and of hospitality.
Key Words: advice literature • domestic space • home entertaining • household management • interor design • taste.
Open access to pre-print text: http://hdl.handle.net/2299/768
Subscription only access to pdf: http://jdh.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/14/3/187
‘Dressing the Part(y): 1950s Domestic Advice Books and the Studied Performance of Informal Domesticity in the UK and the US’
In Performance, Fashion and the Modern Interior, ed. Fiona Fisher and Patricia Lara-Betancourt (Oxford: Berg, 2011): 183-196
Behaviour is subject to fashion as much as clothing, furniture and other designed goods. As a discourse of ideals,... more Behaviour is subject to fashion as much as clothing, furniture and other designed goods. As a discourse of ideals, domestic advice literature - and by that I mean advice literature pertaining to the social and material composition of the home, namely etiquette, homemaking and home decoration books - can be read retrospectively to trace fashionable changes in both design and manners and is therefore a useful resource in uncovering the history of intersections between fashion, performance and the modern interior. This chapter examines three domestic advice books from the UK and the US: American industrial designers Russel and Mary Wright’s Guide to Easier Living, revised edition 1954 (1950), British journalist Julia Cairns’s Home Making, also 1954 and British author Daphne Barraclough’s How to Run a Good Party of 1956 to examine a historical moment in which a shift in fashionable behaviour produced new advice about domestic interactions, or performances, within the home. With reference to Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical metaphor developed in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, here advice books are presented as scripts for domestic performances within the home as a stage.
Small Change? Emily Post’s Etiquette
In Must Read: Rediscovering American Bestsellers, ed. Sarah Churchwell and Thomas Ruys-Smith (London: Continuum, 2012): pp. TBC.
In the contemporary book market, non-fiction genres such as biography and self-help command considerable sales, ... more In the contemporary book market, non-fiction genres such as biography and self-help command considerable sales, yet ‘bestseller’ is still a term primarily associated with fiction (the nature of that fiction is explored in this book). This chapter examines a non-fiction text which has been a bestseller for nine decades, and the pre-eminent example of American advice literature, Emily Post’s Etiquette. In catering to the social needs and aspirations of its readers, Etiquette has described as well as prescribed US social interaction and is therefore a useful tool in calibrating the changing nature of the American dream. Succeeding members of the Post family have renewed the book’s content and thereby ensured its continued popularity. By examining these processes of change – of authorship and content – this chapter shows how non-fiction bestsellers maintain and rejuvenate their markets in a manner quite distinct from the majority of bestsellers which are relatively unchanging works of fiction, bound up with their original authors.
Student performance-university preference model: a framework for helping students choose the right A‐level subjects
Every year, many students in the UK fail to achieve a place at their preferred university because they took the wrong... more Every year, many students in the UK fail to achieve a place at their preferred university because they took the wrong A-level subjects. This study aims to suggest a framework for helping students choose the right subjects. Data on student achievement in A-level examinations was obtained from a UK sixth form college over a four-year period. Statistical techniques were employed to support our hypothesis that a student’s choice of A-level subjects should be based on both a student’s ability and a university’s preference for particular subjects and grades. Despite the limitation of small sample size, a model has been created that will maximise a student’s chance of achieving a place at their university of choice. The model presented could easily be extended in future to incorporate more levels in each of the attributes considered, and in this way it could provide the optimal choice of subjects for each individual student given their particular aspirations.
Telling it like it is…: Seneca, Alexander and the dynamics of epistolary advice
(2006), in D. Spencer and E. Theodorakopoulos (eds.) Advice and its Rhetoric in Greece and Rome (Bari: Levante), 79-104
Ties that Blind? How Strong Ties Affect Small Business Owner-Managers' Perceived Trustworthiness of Their Advisors
Co-authored with Teemu Kautonen, Roxanne Zolin and Anmari Viljamaa. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Volume 22, Issue 2, 2010, pages 189-209.
This research asks how a strong personal relationship (strong tie) between a small business ownermanager and their... more This research asks how a strong personal relationship (strong tie) between a small business ownermanager and their professional or informal advisor affects the relationship between the advisor’s recent performance and the owner-manager’s perceptions of the advisor’s trustworthiness in terms of ability, benevolence and integrity. A negative moderating effect could point to a ‘tie that blinds’: the owner-manager may be less critical in evaluating the advisor’s perceived trustworthiness in light of their recent performance, because of the existing personal relationship. A conceptual model is constructed and examined with survey data comprising 153 young Finnish businesses. The results show that strong ties increase the owner-manager’s perception of the advisor’s integrity, disregarding their recent performance. For professional advisors, strong ties reduce the impact of recent performance in the owner-manager’s evaluation of their ability. For informal advisors, a strong tie makes it more likely that their benevolence will be evaluated highly in light of their recent performance. While the results show that ‘ties can blind’ under certain circumstances, the limitations of the study raise the need for further research to specify these contextual factors and examine the causal link between the choice of advisor and business performance.
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The Pragmatics of Peer Advice In a LiveJournal Community
by Inna Kouper
Kouper, I. (2010). The pragmatics of peer advice in a LiveJournal community. Language@Internet, 7.
Soliciting and giving advice has been examined in a variety of contexts, including institutional settings and... more Soliciting and giving advice has been examined in a variety of contexts, including institutional settings and computer-mediated environments. However, research on the latter has focused predominantly on issues of social support, trust, and credibility and has not looked specifically at the pragmatics of advice. This study employs a pragmatic perspective to investigate patterns and structures of peer advice interactions among members of an online motherhood community on LiveJournal.com. The findings suggest that advice exchange is a common type of social interaction in this online community of peers. Moreover, messages that solicit and provide advice have distinctive structural and pragmatic features.