Cultural Memory and British Cinema-going of the 1960s

我将调查和询问一群不同的英国六十年代电影爱好者的文化记忆，不仅是为了阐明电影的社会和文化历史，也是为了对当时的英国社会和文化进行更广泛的重新评估。在解释20世纪60年代时，历史学家传统上认为这是一个关键的时代，与一场文化革命有关，在这场文化革命中，家庭、性、性别、种族和阶级关系都发生了变化，旧的习俗被抛弃了（乔纳森·格林，1998；亚瑟·马维克，1998）。然而，政治家和历史学家都认为60年代是一个激进变革的时代，这一假设受到了多米尼克·桑德布鲁克（Dominic Sandbrook, 2005）的挑战。他认为，1945年后的英国有很强的连续性，而确实发生的变化是缓慢的、痛苦的，而且往往是有争议的。英国社会的大部分地区没有拥抱激进主义和实验，而是保持传统和保守。我将通过分析电影观众的记忆来阐明这一争论。电影不仅在许多方面具有代表性，描绘了当时的阶级、性别、性和文化变化，而且许多电影作家也认为它具有象征意义，体现了广泛的社会希望、神话、恐惧和幻想。此外，它仍然是一种大众娱乐，将来自不同社会和文化背景的人聚集在一起。对观影记忆的分析提供了一种可能性，通过与记忆和生活经验的结合，为20世纪60年代的社会和文化历史提供了新的视角。该项目的方法将基于通过问卷调查、个人访谈和焦点小组讨论收集20世纪60年代电影的个人记忆。一开始，受试者将是自我选择的：他们将自愿在项目网站上完成一份详细的问卷调查，主要是因为他们在一系列报纸和期刊上看到了关于项目的广告或信件（有些人可能因为项目启动的宣传而听说过这个网站）。一旦问卷完成和分析，项目团队将决定哪些受访者也将被邀请进行个人访谈或成为焦点小组的成员。这些决定的依据是，需要有一个在性别方面平衡的样本，并在年龄、社会阶层和种族方面尽可能广泛的样本。在学术产出方面，该计划将产生三篇会议论文，两篇学术文章和一本书。除了该项目的学术基础外，一个主要的优先事项将是更广泛的公众参与。这将主要通过在英国11个场馆放映20世纪60年代主要电影（如《周六夜和周日早晨》、《受害者》、《一种爱》、《亲爱的》、《阿尔菲》）来实现。其中9场放映之后将由首席研究员和研究助理主持关于电影和20世纪60年代本身的讨论。在项目的最后一年，将有两场放映会在更大的场地举行，随后将有一场关于20世纪60年代的记忆和遗产的辩论，届时将有历史学家和电影学者参加。此外，鉴于许多人对电影的热情，以该项目为基础的书籍很可能比大多数学术书籍拥有更广泛的发行量。出于同样的原因（公众对电影和看电影的兴趣），该项目可能会催生广播和电视纪录片。

I will investigate and interrogate the cultural memories of a diverse group of British sixties cinemagoers in order not only to shed light on the social and cultural history of cinema but also to contribute to a wider reappraisal of British society and culture of the time. Interpreting the 1960s, historians have traditionally seen them as a pivotal era, associated with a cultural revolution in which family, sexual, gendered, racial and class relationships all changed as old conventions were discarded (Jonathon Green, 1998; Arthur Marwick, 1998). Yet the assumption on the part of both politicians and historians that the sixties were an era of radical change has been challenged by Dominic Sandbrook (2005), who argues that there were strong elements of continuity with post-1945 Britain and that the changes that did occur were slow, painful and often controversial. Instead of embracing radicalism and experimentation, much of British society remained conventional and conservative. I will aim to shed light on this debate by analysing the memories of cinemagoers. Not only was cinema in many respects representational, portraying the class, gendered, sexual and cultural changes of the time, it was also believed by many writers on film to have emblematic qualities, embodying a wide range of society's hopes, myths, fears and fantasies. Moreover, it was still a mass entertainment, bringing together people from varied social and cultural backgrounds. The analysis of memories of cinemagoing offers the possibility of contributing new perspectives on 1960s social and cultural history by engaging with memory and lived experience. The project's methodology will be based on the collection of individual memories of 1960s cinemagoing through questionnaires, individual interviews and focus group discussions. In the beginning, subjects will be self-selected: they will volunteer to complete a detailed questionnaire on the project website in the main because they have seen advertisements or letters announcing the project in a range of newspapers and periodicals (some may alternatively hear of the website because of the publicity surrounding its launch). Once the questionnaires have been completed and analysed, the project team will decide which respondents will also be invited to personal interviews or to become members of focus groups. Those decisions will be informed by the need to have a sample that is balanced in gender terms and as wide as possible in terms of age, social class, and ethnicity. In terms of scholarly output, the project will result in three conference papers, two scholarly articles, and a book.In addition to the academic rationale for the project, a major priority will be the engagement of a wider public. This will be achieved for the most part through a programme of screening major 1960s films (e.g. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Victim, A Kind of Loving, Darling, Alfie) at 11 venues across the UK. 9 of these screenings will be followed by a discussion on the film and the 1960s themselves moderated by the Principal Investigator and Research Assistant. Two screenings in the final year of the project will be at larger venues and followed by a debate on the memory and legacy of the 1960s involving historians and film scholars. Moreover, given the enthusiasm of many people for the cinema, it is probable that the book based on the project will have a broader circulation than most scholarly books. For the same reason (considerable public interest in cinema and cinemagoing), it is possible that the project will give rise to radio and television documentaries.