CSDI - The Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) Centre for the Study of the Domestic Interior, based at the Royal College of Art in London, brings together three institutions: the Royal College of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Bedford Centre for the History of Women at Royal Holloway, University of London. Launched in September 2001, its goal is to develop new histories of the home, its contents, and its representation. It pursues research into the changing appearance and layout of rooms in a range of buildings, from tenements to palaces; the objects that furnished those rooms; the ways rooms and objects were depicted; the manner in which people used them; and how they thought about them.

Literature and the Domestic Interior

Victoria & Albert Museum, London
23 October 2004

'Think of a kitchen table then', he told her, 'when you're not there'. Woolf

'The interior furniture of houses appeared together with the interior furniture of minds.' Lukacs

Ideas and descriptions of the home figure widely in literature. The domestic interior frequently provides either subject or context of narrative whether in drama, poetry or fiction. Metaphors referring to the domestic interior proliferate, and claims for their significance are widespread. This one-day symposium will explore different instances of the literary representation of the domestic interior in writing from 1400 to the present. This event is part of an ongoing initiative at the AHRB Centre for the Study of the Domestic Interior to develop and support an interdisciplinary community of postgraduates and scholars working in fields related to the domestic interior.

Programme

Registration: Full delegate fee: £40, Student delegate fee: £20. Fee includes sandwich lunch, morning coffee and afternoon tea. Bookings accepted until 15th October 2004. Please complete and return the downloadable booking form, along with a cheque made payable to Royal College of Art. For further information, contact csdi@rca.ac.uk; t. +44 (0)207 590 4183.