Material culture and things

Abstract

Material culture refers to the wide variety of human artifacts that help constitute a social world. The study of material culture plays a key role in many of the social sciences and humanities; thinking about material things is similarly important in much contemporary theory. While there are many possible approaches to material culture studies, there is a body of theoretical works that grounds much current work in the field. A distinctive material culture based on the mass‐produced commodity came into being in the Victorian era, and Victorians themselves were acutely aware of inhabiting a new world of things. Victorian studies has been shaped by its attention to material culture, as this culture was negotiated by Victorian subjects and represented in Victorian art and literature.