The Festival as Form

节日是英国创意经济的重要组成部分。超过三分之一的英国成年人参观过一个文学节(来源：Ticketmaster)，除了350个指定的文学节外，许多大型的一般文学节现在还包括诗歌、戏剧和讨论的文学区。艺术节也在改变人们获取新作品的方式：市场分析师Neilsen Bookcan认为，2012-2017年间诗歌销量增长66%在很大程度上是由节日和现场活动中遇到的对当代诗歌的胃口推动的(Booksell，13.4.18)。然而，尽管有大量关于节日的人类学背景，但关于当代节日如何影响其中的表演的研究很少(科穆尼亚，2016)，几乎没有关于节日与现代文学之间的关系的研究。关于音乐节的辩论往往围绕音乐节的反文化资质被市场侵占的程度展开；Johansen(2012)声称，文学节也遭遇了“身份危机”，既是明星作家的载体，又是让读者感觉更像是讨论的真正参与者的一种手段。但是，牙买加-琼斯(2014)指出，仅追踪地位问题的研究减少了参与者体验在整个艺术节流程中的沉浸式丰富性、偶然性和复杂性；它不能记录超级丰富的、跨越边界的艺术节体验(Turner 1974)，它绕过了艺术本身在阐明地位和包容性问题方面所起的作用。这项提议是将当代文艺节作为一种形式进行考察。就像舞台或页面布局一样，艺术节是一种文化流派、一个经济项目和一个物理空间的混合体，以独特的方式框定了艺术节内部的艺术和观众。通过观察选定的艺术家为艺术节改编作品的方式，我们的目标是更多地了解艺术节为艺术家产生的作品中的创作压力和反馈循环。我们将让观众对他们的经历进行一些叙事摄影，询问他们在电影节期间作为消费者、朋友、公民、粉丝、身份寻求者和共同创造者如何适应自己的社交媒体渠道。采访策展人和广泛的利益相关者，我们将建立一个关于电影节作为一种流派如何塑造文学创造力的图景，我们将把这一点放在它在现代文学中的作用的更长历史中。我们的研究问题是：作为一种流派，当代艺术节如何塑造其中的文学表演？参加艺术节的人如何根据他们对艺术节的全面体验来理解文学事件？自20世纪初以来，艺术节如何支持文学作品的创作和参与？我们将为学术评论家、艺术专业人士和创意总监制作一份报告，概述节日对文学的影响。很自然，我们将邀请观众通过在随后几年的电影节上的活动来对研究做出自己的反应。

Festivals are a vital part of the UK's creative economy. Over a third of UK adults have visited one (source: Ticketmaster), and alongside the 350 designated literary festivals, many of the large general ones now include literary zones for poetry, theatre and discussion. Festivals are also changing how people access new work: market analysts Neilsen Bookscan argue that the 66% rise in poetry sales between 2012-2017 has been substantially driven by the appetite for contemporary poetry encountered at festivals and live events (Bookseller, 13.4.18). Yet despite the large amount of anthropological background on festivals, there has been little research into the way contemporary festivals shape the performances within them (Comunian, 2016), and almost nothing on the relationship between festivals and modern literature. Debates on music festivals often turn on the degree to which festivals' countercultural credentials have been appropriated by the market; the literary festival, too, suffers 'a crisis of identity', claims Johansen (2012), torn between being the vehicle for star authors, and a means for readers to feel more like genuine participants in a discussion. But research which tracks questions of status alone has reduced the immersive richness, contingency and complexity of the participants' experience within the overall festival flow, notes Jamaingal-Jones (2014); it cannot register the hyper-abundant, border-dropping experience of festivals (Turner 1974), and it by-passes the role the arts themselves play in articulating questions of status and inclusion.This proposal is to examine the contemporary literary-artistic festival as a form. Like a stage or a page layout, the festival is a mixture of a cultural genre, an economic project and a physical space, which frames the arts within it and its audience in distinctive ways. By observing the way selected artists adapt a work for the festival, we aim to understand more of the creative pressures and feedback loops into the work which the festival generates for artists. We will get audiences to do some 'narrated photography' of their experience, asking how they adapt during the festival as consumers, friends, citizens, fans, identity-seekers and co-creators of the festival for their own social media outlets. Interviewing curators and a wide range of stakeholders, we will build up a picture of how the festival as a genre shapes literary creativity, and we will set this within a longer history of its role in modern literature. Our research questions are:How does the contemporary festival as a genre shape the literary performances within it?How do festival-goers understand literary events in the light of their all-round experience of the festival?How have festivals supported the creation of and engagement with works of literature since the early twentieth century?We will produce a report outlining what festivalization is doing to literature for academic critics, arts professionals and creative directors. And naturally enough, we will invite audiences to make their own response to the research through events at those festivals in subsequent years.