Decolonizing Voices: World Literature and Broadcast Culture at the End of Empire

《去殖民之声》是一个研究项目，调查1945-1968年间三大洲无线电广播和文学创作的相互联系的历史。这项研究采用了多种学术方法，包括文学批评、全球书史、传记写作和文化研究。我们将重点关注加勒比英语国家松散的文学和文化生产网络，加纳广播公司在阿克拉的工作，以及英国广播公司殖民服务所发挥的调解作用，考察这些网络和机构在塑造二十世纪新兴世界文学的文体和政治轮廓方面的参与。该项目旨在了解小说、诗歌和短篇小说等文化形式如何在全球出版和媒体渠道中流通，以及不平等的国际权力关系如何使这种流通高度不平衡，而不平等的国际权力关系往往是殖民主义和帝国主义的遗产。这些不平等经常表现在出版社、广播机构和市场力量对来自殖民和前殖民国家的作家和艺术家施加的压力上。该项目将基于对加勒比海、英国和西非材料的档案研究，这些材料中的大部分相对来说是未被开发的。这些材料包括20世纪40年代和50年代在加勒比和加纳播出的各种广播系列节目的文字记录、信件和节目信息，包括“加勒比之声”和“西非之声”。这些展览展示了这些地区作家的作品，在殖民统治即将结束、民族独立前景迫在眉睫的时代，为更广泛的公众提供了关于文学、文化和政治问题的讨论机会，发挥了重要作用。该项目的独特之处在于，它将把目前分散在三大洲的档案材料汇集在一起，通过关注文化形式不均衡流通的全球视角来审视这一点。该项目将利用英国广播公司制片人亨利·斯旺齐的报纸、日记和信件的独家使用权。斯旺齐的职业生涯表明了三大洲文学史和广播史之间存在的联系，在1954年成为阿克拉黄金海岸广播系统的节目负责人之前，他在1946-54年间制作了《加勒比之声》。此外，斯旺齐在日记中的写作提供了大量关于BBC国内外职业生活的故事，同时也记录了关键的文化趋势以及战后时代的社会和政治动荡。该项目的主要目的之一是调查BBC是如何卷入当时关于种族和移民的政治讨论的。《去殖民化的声音》将为学术界和更广泛的受众制作一系列作品，包括斯旺齐回忆录的流行评论版，以及最近关于世界文学和文学价值政治的辩论所提供的关于文学史和广播史之间相互联系的学术著作(文章，一本简短的专著)。该项目的另一个重要成果是将在英国广播公司世界广播电台以及加勒比和加纳电台播出的广播节目。该方案将审查非殖民化时代媒体机构、节目制作人和文学杂志系列之间的历史关系的重要性。通过重新审视这些关系，我们的节目将有助于提供信息并加强关于公共服务广播在“全球化时代”的功能和未来的讨论。通过这些方式，“非殖民化之声”项目将对理解文学生产、广播作为文化表达媒介的作用和帝国遗产之间的关系做出重要贡献。

"Decolonizing Voices" is a research project that investigates the interconnected history of radio broadcasting and literary production across three continents in the period 1945-1968. The study employs a mixture of scholarly approaches, including literary criticism, global book history, biographical writing and cultural studies. Focusing on the loosely articulated networks of literary and cultural production in the Anglophone Caribbean, the work of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation in Accra, and the mediating role played by the BBC Colonial Service, we will examine the involvement of these networks and institutions in shaping the stylistic and political contours of emerging world literatures in the twentieth century. The project aims to map out how cultural forms such as novels, poems, and short stories circulate through publishing and media channels across the globe, and the ways in which this circulation is rendered highly uneven by unequal international power relations, which are often the legacy of colonialism and imperialism. These inequalities are frequently manifested in the pressures placed on writers and artists from colonized and formerly colonized countries by publishing houses, broadcast institutions, and market forces.The project will be based around archival research into material in the Caribbean, the UK, and West Africa, much of which is relatively unexplored. This material includes transcripts, letters, and programme information relating to various radio series broadcast in the Caribbean and Ghana in the 1940s and 1950s, including 'Caribbean Voices' and 'West African Voices'. These showcased the work of authors from those regions and were important in providing access for a wider public to discussions about literary, cultural and political issues during an era in which colonial rule was ending and the prospect of national independence was on the horizon. The project is unique in that it will bring together archival material currently scattered across three continents, examining this through a global optic attentive to the uneven circulation of cultural forms.The project will make use of exclusive access to the papers, diaries, and letters of the BBC producer Henry Swanzy. Swanzy's career is indicative of the connections that existed between literary and broadcast histories across the three continents, having produced 'Caribbean Voices' between 1946-54, before becoming Head of Programmes for the Gold Coast Broadcasting System in Accra in 1954. Moreover, Swanzy's writings in his diaries provide a wealth of stories about working life both at the BBC and abroad, while also registering key cultural trends and the social and political upheavals of the post-war era. One of the principal aims of the project is to investigate how the BBC was enmeshed in the political discussions over race and immigration at the time."Decolonizing Voices" will produce a series of outputs both for an academic and a wider audience, including a popular critical edition of Swanzy's memoirs, as well as scholarly writings (articles, a short monograph) on the interconnections between literary and broadcast histories informed by recent debates on world literature and the politics of literary value. Another key output of the project will be a radio programme to be broadcast on the BBC World Service and stations in the Caribbean and Ghana. The programme will examine the importance of the historical relationships between media institutions, programme makers, and literary magazine series in the era of decolonization. Our programme, in revisiting these relationships, will help to inform and enhance discussions over the function and future of public service broadcasting in a "globalized age".In these ways, the "Decolonizing Voices" project will make a vital contribution to an understanding of the relationships between literary production, the role of broadcasting as a medium of cultural expression, and the legacies of empire.