“People usually think about fashion as something superficial, irrelevant or just materialistic,” says Anne Cheng, professor of English. “But philosophers and writers have known for a long time that it also generates formative meanings about how others identify us and how we identify ourselves.”
In the fall course “Literature and Fashion,” co-taught by Cheng and graduate student Moeko Fujii, students explored novels and films using fashion as their filter for these concepts and ideas.
“It turns out literature and film are obsessed with fashion,” Cheng said. “Once we started thinking about this class, the historic span really amazed us.” Readings included Émile Zola’s 1883 novel “The Ladies’ Paradise” about the first department store in France, Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” Joan Didion’s 1979 essay about the importance of packing well, and…
