Offering a spectrum of approaches to the phenomenon of collecting from the 16th century to the present, this book covers the collecting of any sort of material objects. It not only deals with the physical objects, but examines the organization of ideas and intellectual models of collecting.

Autorentext
Roger Cardinal is Emeritus Professor of Literary and Visual Studies at the University of Kent at Canterbury. The author of many books and articles, he has written extensively on Surrealism and is an international authority on Art Brut. John Elsner is Humfrey Payne Senior Research Fellow in Classical Archaeology and Art at Corpus Christi College Oxford.

Klappentext
This book traces the psychology, history and theory of the compulsion to collect, focusing not just on the normative collections of the Western canon, but also on collections that reflect a fascination with the "Other" and the marginal - the ephemeral, exotic, or just plain curious. There are essays on the Neoclassical architect Sir John Soane, Sigmund Freud and Kurt Schwitters, one of the masters of collage. Others examine imperialist encounters with remote cultures - the consquitadors in America in the sixteenth century, and the British in the Pacific in the eighteenth - and the more recent collectors of popular culture, be they of Swatch watches, Elvis Presley memorabilia or of packaging and advertising. With essays by Jean Baudrillard, Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, Nicholas Thomas, Mieke Bal, John Forrester, John Windsor, Naomi Schor, Susan Stewart, Anthony Alan Shelton, John Elsner, Roger Cardinal and an interview with Robert Opie.

Inhalt

With essays by Jean Baudrillard, Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, Nicholas Thomas, Mieke Bal, John Forrester, John Windsor, Naomi Schor, Susan Stewart, Anthony Alan Shelton, John Elsner, Roger Cardinal and an interview with Robert Opie.