Alle Publikationen
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2016
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(2016): Etiquette Books, Discourse and the Deployment of an Order of Things. In: Theory, Culture & Society 16 (4), S. 25-48. DOI: 10.1177/02632769922050700
Abstract: Grounded on Foucault's suggestion that discourses are not just referential or representational systems, but part of the infrastructure ordering practices in a society, this article analyzes transformations in the etiquette literature in the USA at the beginning of the 20th century. It claims that the transformations undergone by etiquette books at the time involved not only a change in the substance of manners but also in their format, and it shows how this change in format embodied and helped deploy an infrastructure of social relations constituted by a logic of decenteredness, as opposed to a logic of centeredness. The article discusses both the theoretical issues raised by the concept of an infrastructure of social relations and methodological points concerning the use of etiquette books for social research, and raises some analytical questions regarding our understanding of American history at the time, as well as our more general conceptions of modernity and postmodernity. In order to reinforce its general argument concerning the embeddedness of an infrastructure of social relations in discourse, and to help clarify the idea of a logic of decenteredness, the article also illustrates how etiquette books from a much earlier period embodied and deployed a logic of centeredness.
2015
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(2015): The Decline in Shared Collective Conscience as Found in the Shifting Norms and Values of Etiquette Manuals. In: Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 45 (3), S. 352-376. DOI: 10.1111/jtsb.12071
2014
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(2014): The Puffery and Practicality of Etiquette Books. A New Take on Victorian Information Culture. In: Library Trends 62 (3), S. 663-680. DOI: 10.1353/lib.2014.0011
1996
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(1996): "Motto : bleibt natürlich!" : zur Vermittlung geschlechtsspezifischer Körpersprache in Anstandsbüchern. In: Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde 92 (1), S. 63-78
Abstract: Der Titel «Motto: Bleibt natürlich! - Zur Vermittlung geschlechtsspezifischer Körpersprache in Anstandsbüchern» ist streng genommen ein Widerspruch. Denn auf der einen Seite macht die Aufforderung «Bleibt natürlich!» glauben, daß Anstandsbücher den Menschen einen Anspruch auf eine wie auch immer verstandene Selbstverwirklichung zugestehen, andererseits verweist der Untertitel «Vermittlung geschlechtsspezifischer Körpersprache» eher auf das Gegenteil, auf den Prozeß der Sozialisation, auf Vermittlung also, hier verstanden als Akt der Erziehung. Die Auflösung dieses Widerspruches führt mitten hinein in die Problematik, nämlich in die Frage, welche Funktion und Bedeutung Anstandsbücher seit Beginn unseres Jahrhunderts besaßen. Besonders thematisiert werden soll dabei ein Aspekt, der angesichts der vielfältigen Anleitungen zum richtigen Benehmen bei Tisch, bei Besuchen, in der Sommerfrische usw. schnell übersehen wird, nämlich daß die Anstandsbücher jener Zeit wie kaum je zuvor Bilder von Männlich und Weiblich festgeschrieben haben. Das Arrangement der Geschlechter, das die bürgerliche Familie konstituierte und zu einem Gutteil bis heute ausmacht, fand seine Entsprechungen bis in die Körpersprache hinein.
1995
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(1995): Etiquette Books and Emotion Management in the 20th Century. Part Two--The Integration of the Sexes. In: Journal of Social History 29 (2), S. 325-339. DOI: 10.1353/jsh/29.2.324
Abstract: This paper is the second part of a report on a comparative study of changes in twentieth-century American, Dutch, English and German etiquette books, focusing on connections between changes in ranking and formality, especially with regard to classes and sexes, and changes in emotion management. This part concentrates on the diminishing social and psychic distance between the sexes, and on changes in the demands on emotion management in the process of women's emancipation and social integration. A sketch of the expansion of upper- and middle-class women's sources of power and identity focuses on aspects such as the development of codes of behaviour for new situations: dances, dates, the workplace, etc., as women succeeded in getting rid of the system of chaperonage and in 'escaping' from the imprisonment of the 'home'. The concluding sections of this part focus on the intensified tug-of-war between old and new relational ideals and sources of power, and concomitant: feelings of ambivalence in both women and men.
Keywords: Etikette, Etiquette, Favoriten, Gender, Geschichte, Historical shifts of politeness forms, Kulturelle/soziale Rituale, Observablen/Kriterien für sozial angemessenes Verhalten und dessen Bewertung, Ratgeber, Ratgeberforschung, Sexes, Soziale Angemessenheit, Sozialgeschichte, Tanz, Überblick -
(1995): Etiquette Books and Emotion Management in The 20th Century. Part One--The Integration of Social Classes. In: Journal of Social History 29 (1), S. 107-124. DOI: 10.1353/jsh/29.1.107
Abstract: This is the first part of a comparative study of changes in twentieth-century American, Dutch, English and German etiquette books, focusing on connections between changes in ranking and formality, especially with regard to classes and sexes, and changes in emotional management. Direct references to differences in class, status and gender, particularly with regard to feelings of superiority and inferiority, have diminished or even vanished from the social codes as workers and women came to be further integrated into their national states. Within the consequential narrower limits these codes have become more lenient and varied for a wider and more differentiated public: an informalization process. After a preliminary section on etiquette books as a source of evidence, this first report concentrates on the diminishing social and psychical distance between people of different class and rank. It presents examples of changes in what was written on the 'dangers' of social mixing, familiarity, the use of Christian names and 'social kissing'. These examples indicate an expanding social integration and identification as well as a change in the regimes of power and emotions in the direction of increasing social constraint towards 'unconstrained self-restraint'.
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