Writing luxury: Mirrors, silk, lace, and writing desks in French literature, 1660--1715

TL;DRAbstract

This dissertation explores the cultural and literary roles of mirrors, silk, lace, and writing furniture in the context of French literature and society between 1660 and 1715. By examining texts from a variety of genres, including letters, memoirs, novels, plays, fairytales, and period dictionaries, this study arrives at conclusions about how certain luxury goods functioned as literary and cultural symbols for more abstract concepts, such as vanity, beauty, virtue, knowledge, and pride. In fictional and historical texts, luxury products assume moral and figurative connotations that illuminate some of the preoccupations of the era. References to mirrors and writing desks provide information about the domestic space and the daily practices of grooming or letter-writing. Nevertheless, these items also speak to concepts of intimacy, privacy, status, and knowledge of the self and others in ways that allow the modern scholar to interpret these ideas through early modern eyes. Likewise, the t

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