Circus remains: circus and the late British empire, 1900-1980

马戏团遗迹：马戏团和大英帝国晚期，1900-1980

• 批准号: 2583805
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: King's College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2583805
• 关键词: Circus; remains; circus; late; British

My interdisciplinary project traces the imperial legacy of the circus from the late Victorian period through the twentieth century. It brings together circus studies and the history of the nation in 'post'-imperial Britain to explore how the remains of colonialism register beyond the textual, in ways that are embodied and unwritten. Using previously unreleased material from BBC and Pathé archives, I show how British identity was negotiated in circus productions, suggesting that circuses became embodied archives of imperialism. I concurrently question how televised circus's broadcasting institutions and cultural stakeholders shaped -- and continue to sculpt -- attitudes towards, and histories of, empire. Building on Rebecca Schneider's concept of performance 'remains' (Schneider), I illuminate the relationship between circus's transformation and its 'remains' in a 'post'-colonial context: a relationship of tension yet coexistence which puts pressure on the very idea of the 'post'-colonial circus. Despite the (inter)national upheaval of the twentieth century, actual circus acts remained substantially the same, by virtue of tradition: inherited from body to body through generations of circus families. I therefore suggest that circus acts are 'mnemonic reserves' (Roach) for the legacy of empire. The circus itself becomes an archive of imperialism. In line with Ann Laura Stoler's exploration of the 'watermarks' of colonial history, 'indelibly inscribed in past and present' (Stoler), my project also comprises a meta-discussion of the institutional archives of the BBC and British Pathé. Moving beyond the textual and using performance as methodology, I interrogate how institutions hold responsibility in forming and sustaining hegemonic values in 'post'-imperial Britain - in the material they disseminate, and in taxonomising their collections to define what constitutes a 'worthy' object of research.

我的跨学科项目追溯了从维多利亚晚期到二十世纪的马戏帝国遗产。它汇集了马戏团研究和“后”帝国英国的国家历史，以探索殖民主义的遗迹如何超越文本，以体现和不成文的方式注册。使用以前未发布的材料从BBC和百代档案，我展示了英国身份是如何在马戏团制作谈判，这表明马戏团成为帝国主义的体现档案。我同时质疑电视马戏团的广播机构和文化利益相关者如何塑造-并继续塑造-对帝国的态度和历史。丽贝卡施耐德的表演“仍然”（施耐德）的概念的基础上，我照亮了马戏团的转型和它的“仍然”在“后”殖民背景下的关系：紧张的关系，但共存的压力非常“后”殖民马戏团的想法。尽管二十世纪发生了（国际）动荡，但由于传统的原因，马戏团的实际表演基本上保持不变：通过几代马戏团家庭从一个身体继承到另一个身体。因此，我认为马戏表演是帝国遗产的“记忆储备”（罗奇）。马戏团本身变成了帝国主义的档案馆。与安·劳拉·斯特朗对殖民历史“水印”的探索一致，“不可磨灭地刻在过去和现在”（斯特朗），我的项目还包括对英国广播公司和英国百代的机构档案的元讨论。超越文本和使用性能的方法，我询问机构如何在形成和维持霸权价值观的“后”帝国英国的责任-在他们传播的材料，并在分类他们的收藏品，以确定什么是一个“有价值的”研究对象。