Department Store Literature and Consumer Culture between 1880 and 1930

研究项目将在第二阶段完成。第一阶段制定的目标仍然有效：一方面，对从1880年的S到1930年的S的中美百货公司文学进行系统的梳理，另一方面，重构百货公司历史论战的话语格局，虚构的百货公司文学在这一格局上有多方面的参与。第三，回答这个问题，为什么百货商店会成为1900年前后现代化的中心标志。据推测，百货商店在概念层面上有别于其他现代化的地方，如大酒店、火车站、电影院等。这就是说：百货公司将现代的多样性、复杂性和模糊性作为一个整体呈现在人们的视野中。与现代的分化过程相反，百货公司将不同领域的知识和不同的话语集中在一个地方，从而在1900年前后高度多样化的现代性讨论中创造了一个象征性的实体。

The research project will be finished in its second phase. The targets formulated for the first phase are still valid: On the one hand, carrying out a systematic overview of the Central European and American literature on department stores from the 1880's to the 1930's. On the other hand, reconstructing the discursive pattern of historical debates about department stores, on which the fictional department store literature participates in many ways. Thirdly, answering the question, why department stores could be central symbols of the modernization around 1900. It is postulated that the department store differs from other places of modernity like grand hotels, railway stations, cinemas etc. on a conceptual level. That is to say: The department store brings the modern diversity, complexity and ambiguity as a whole into view. Contrary to the modern processes of differentiation the department store concentrates different fields of knowledge and different discourses at one place and thus creates a symbolic entity in the highly heterogeneous discussions of modernity around 1900.