‘What’s far fetch’d, and dearly bought’: The Politics of Clothing in Poetry from Eighteenth-Century Ireland

This essay examines the representation of clothing in eighteenth-century poetry from Ireland, and the implications of this representation for our understanding of the interwoven character of individual subjectivity and commodity culture. The sourcing and consumption of textiles played an important role in the economics of individuals and households in Ireland, and may be linked in turn to an increase in overseas trade, and to the political impact of these developments. In addition to its practical effects, the depiction of dress in verse texts offers symbolic readings, and is linked to questions concerning representation itself and to the process of self-fashioning in times of social change.