Ocean Modern: Liners and Literature

2018年V&A展览的策展人表示：“远洋客轮仍然是20世纪现代性最强大、最令人钦佩的象征之一。”“没有任何一种交通工具，”他们补充说，“像它这样浪漫、非凡或有争议。”这个项目询问为什么远洋客轮具有如此强大的象征意义，以及它究竟象征着什么。特别是，它调查了文学文本中内衬的复杂、冲突的含义，并揭示了它在印刷和阅读文化中的作用。从19世纪末到20世纪中期，大型钢壳蒸汽船运送了数百万移民、难民、军队、商人、康复者、名人、游客和学生。航运公司对许多国家的经济和技术发展至关重要。他们在战时海军作战和和平时期的国家和帝国建设项目中与政府合作。班轮是国际文学文化的代理人，运载着印刷机、图书馆和书店。他们的室内成为艺术家和设计师的展览空间。从克劳德·麦凯到丽贝卡·韦斯特，从大卫·伯恩到尤金·奥尼尔，这些作家的小说、戏剧和诗歌都囊括了所有这些方面。这些文本反过来又促进了公众对班轮的迷恋及其更广泛的文化意义。班轮的魅力源自与流动性、创新和魅力的联系。然而，这可能会掩盖航运公司在殖民主义、武装冲突、劳资纠纷和强迫移民等背景下的压迫性和不公正做法的含义。一个关键的问题是：远洋客轮是文学叙事中的反抗场所，还是总是与政府、资本和精英的权力保持一致？在我们自己的时代，当海上过境仍然与极端豪华（全包游轮）和极端危险（难民小船）联系在一起时，这个问题仍然没有失去它的共鸣。该项目还探讨了如何推广、记录、纪念和神话化个别船只及其员工和乘客的经历。这部分的研究广泛借鉴了航运公司的档案资料。这些丰富的收藏——包括海报、小册子、员工杂志，以及日志、日记和航海剪贴簿——主要供系谱学家或运输历史学家使用。与文学文本中更黑暗、更矛盾的叙事相比，它们会产生新的见解。就像克莱德建造的邮轮本身一样，该项目起源于格拉斯哥，但其影响范围遍及世界各地。航运塑造了苏格兰的“文化认同和经济”（苏格兰海洋，蓝色经济愿景2022）。这对克莱德、福斯和泰地区的历史、文化和建筑环境尤其重要，这些地区的海洋遗产社区将是这项研究的主要受益者和贡献者。与以前的乘客和造船厂工人、当地历史学家和保存历史船只的人进行知识交流的可能性很大。我与这些团体的前期接触为我提供了宝贵的反馈和见解，并揭示了我对苏格兰建造的船只的文学和文化叙事知识的巨大兴趣。这些叙述使当地的故事与班轮的国际形象和神话联系起来。该项目的研究结果将以一本书、一套船舶案例研究和一系列现场和在线活动的形式呈现，旨在吸引船舶爱好者、遗产组织和学校。作为文学文化中首次研究远洋客轮的作品，该书将在英语研究、现代主义研究、书籍史等领域开辟新的领域。在班轮已经成为研究对象的领域：海事和海洋研究；文化地理学;旅行和运输史；以及视觉文化研究。

"Ocean liners remain one of the most powerful and admired symbols of twentieth-century modernity", according to the curators of a 2018 V&A exhibition. "No form of transport," they add, "was as romantic, remarkable or contested." This project asks why the ocean liner is so powerfully symbolic and what, exactly, it is symbolic of. In particular, it investigates the complex, conflicted meanings that are invested in the liner in literary texts, and uncovers its role in cultures of print and reading.Between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries, large steel-hulled steamships carried millions of emigrants, refugees, troops, business-people, convalescents, celebrities, tourists and students. Shipping companies were crucial to the economic and technological development of many countries. They co-operated with governments in wartime naval operations and peacetime projects of nation- and empire-building. Liners were agents of international literary culture, carrying printing presses, libraries and bookshops. Their interiors became exhibition spaces for artists and designers. All these aspects are taken up in a wide range of novels, plays and poems by authors ranging from Claude McKay to Rebecca West, David Bone to Eugene O'Neill. Those texts - in turn - contribute to public fascination with the liner and to its broader cultural meanings. The allure of the liner derives from associations with mobility, innovation and glamour. Yet this can obscure the implication of shipping firms in oppressive and unjust practices, in contexts ranging from colonialism to armed conflict, labour disputes and forced migration. A crucial question is: can the ocean liner be a site of resistance in literary narrative or is it always aligned with the power of governments, capital and elites? In our own time, when sea crossings are still associated both with extreme luxury (all-inclusive cruises) and extreme peril (refugee small boats), this question has lost none of its resonance. The project also asks how individual ships, and the experiences of their staff and passengers, are promoted, documented, commemorated and mythologised. This part of the research draws extensively on shipping company archives. These rich collections - including posters, brochures, and staff magazines, as well as logs, diaries and voyage scrapbooks - are mostly used by geneaologists or transport historians. They will yield new insight when compared with the darker and more ambivalent narratives found in literary texts.Like the Clyde-built liners themselves, the project originates in Glasgow but extends its reach across the world. Shipping has shaped Scotland's 'cultural identity and economy' (Marine Scotland, Blue Economy Vision 2022). It is particularly crucial to the history, culture and built environment of the Clyde, Forth and Tay regions, and their maritime heritage communities will be key beneficiaries of - and contributors to - the research. There is much potential for knowledge exchange with former passengers and shipyard workers, local historians, and those conserving historic ships. My preparatory engagement with these groups has provided me with valuable feedback and insight, and has revealed a great appetite for knowledge about the literary and cultural narratives surrounding ships built in Scotland. These narratives allow local stories to be connected to the international iconography and mythology of the liner. The project's findings will be presented in a book, a set of ship case studies, and a series of live and online activities designed to engage with ship enthusiasts, heritage organisations and schools. As the first study of ocean liners in literary culture, the book will break new ground in English Studies, modernist studies and book history. It will be invaluable, too, in fields where liners are already an object of study: maritime and oceanic studies; cultural geography; travel and transport history; and visual culture studies.