1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910820272403321

Autore

Wickramasinghe Nira

Titolo

Metallic modern : everyday machines in colonial Sri Lanka / / Nira Wickramasinghe

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York : , : Berghahn Books, , 2014

©2014

ISBN

1-78238-243-7

Edizione

[First edition.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (191 p.)

Disciplina

338.095493

Soggetti

Industries - Social aspects - Sri Lanka - History

Consumption (Economics) - Sri Lanka

Civilization, Modern

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; Illustrations; Preface and Acknowledgements; Introduction - Exploring Sri Lanka's Modern: Multiple Loops of Belonging; Chapter 1 - Following the Singer Sewing Machine: Fashioning a Market in a British Crown Colony; Chapter 2 - Creating a Market Imaginary; Chapter 3 - Paths to a Buddhist Modern: From Siam to America; Chapter 4 - The Gramophone: Soulful Sounds and Sacred Speeches; Chapter 5 - An Asian Modern: Japan; Chapter 6 - Trams, Cars, Bicycles: Modern Machines in the City; Chapter 7 - A Tailor's Tale and Machines in the Home; Chapter 8 - Working like Machines

Conclusion - Metallic ModernGlossary; Bibliography; Index

Sommario/riassunto

Everyday life in the Crown colony of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) was characterized by a direct encounter of people with modernity through the consumption and use of foreign machines - in particular, the Singer sewing machine, but also the gramophone, tramway, bicycle and varieties of industrial equipment. The 'metallic modern' of the 19th and early 20th century Ceylon encompassed multiple worlds of belonging and imagination; and enabled diverse conceptions of time to coexist through encounters with Siam, the United States and Japan as well as a new conception of urban space in Colombo. Metallic