Department Store Literature and Consumer Culture between 1880 and 1930

该研究项目将在第二阶段完成。为第一阶段制定的目标仍然有效：一方面，对中欧和美国从19世纪80年代到30年代关于百货公司的文献进行系统的综述。另一方面，重建百货商店历史论争的话语模式，虚构的百货商店文学以多种方式参与其中。第三，回答为什么百货公司能成为1900年前后现代化的中心标志。假设百货商店在概念层面上不同于其他现代化场所，如大酒店、火车站、电影院等。也就是说：百货商店将现代社会的多样性、复杂性和模糊性作为一个整体呈现出来。与现代的分化过程相反，百货公司将不同的知识领域和不同的话语集中在一个地方，从而在1900年左右高度异质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.