Reading, Writing and... Rebellion: Understanding Literacies and Class Conflict Through the Edwardian Book Inscription

书的题字是可以在书的扉页或扉页上找到的所有权标志。历史上，只有杰出或富有人物的碑文受到关注，而“普通人”的碑文则被视为白话写作的无关紧要的例子而被忽视。我的博士研究挑战了这种看法，为爱德华七世时代的英国（1901-1914）所有阶级群体使用碑文的方式提供了新的知识，特别关注档案记录中基本上保持沉默的声音，如工人阶级、妇女和儿童。具体来说，我的博士学位试图了解书籍铭文如何有助于我们理解爱德华七世时期英国的阶级冲突，结合社会理论、档案研究和多模态话语分析，一方面探索铭文中的图像、颜色、排版和纹理选择的含义，另一方面探索这种白话读写实践的交流和表演方面。我发现，各个阶层的爱德华时代的人都意识到了书中空间的潜力，可以物化他们的经济手段和文化需求，并在一个社会空间中维护自己的地位，或者与其他群体保持距离。对于工人阶级来说，碑铭提供了一个机会，通过记录政治信息和/或污辱作为奖品的书籍来展示他们最近的思想解放。另一方面，中产阶级一般将碑文作为社会流动性的象征姿态，以获得社会资本和同龄人的尊重。相反，担心等级社会崩溃的上层阶级把碑文看作是宣传自己财富和社会地位的方式。我的结论是，所有阶级群体的铭文都具有很高的文化价值，因为它们是理解20世纪初英国自我表现、社会冲突和阶级紧张的重要主要资源。当与档案证据相结合时，它们揭示了个人叙述，这些叙述提供了与国家权力机构的官方叙述相反的新的历史叙述。在申请这个奖学金时，我的目标是发表、分享和扩展我的发现，并发展学术和专业网络。首先，奖学金将给我时间、空间和资源来建立一个强大的出版记录。这将使我能够在两本同行评议的期刊上发表论文——《视觉传达》和《历史语用学杂志》——并开始为《劳特利奇读写研究》系列的专著准备章节。其次，奖学金将使我能够通过会议演讲和影响/参与活动向相关的学术和专业受众以及公众传播我的研究。会议将在我的主要研究领域（扫盲研究，物质/视觉文化，社会历史），而活动将集中在组织一个展览和研讨会在大学和格拉摩根档案馆。第三，该奖学金将支持与卡迪夫大学内外的学术和专业网络的接触。在卡迪夫大学，我将加入跨学科的视觉文化研究小组ImageWorks，向数据创新研究所的研究软件工程师寻求关于数字存档和大数据的建议，并发展我与Special Collections的关系。在大学之外，我将与格拉摩根档案馆和爱德华文化网络分享我的研究。最后，该奖学金将使我能够为档案馆、博物馆和图书馆制作一份信息小册子，总结我的研究的实际应用。我还将研究与这些利益相关者合作的机会，以增加白话写作/未被充分代表的群体在收藏中的存在。

Book inscriptions are ownership marks that can be found on the front endpapers or flyleaves of a book. Historically, only the inscriptions of prominent or wealthy figures have been given attention, while the inscriptions of 'ordinary people' have been disregarded as insignificant examples of vernacular writing. My doctoral research challenged this perception by contributing new knowledge on the ways in which inscriptions were used by all class groups in Edwardian Britain (1901-1914), drawing particular attention to voices that remain largely silent in archival records, such as the working classes, women and children. Specifically, my PhD sought to understand how book inscriptions contribute to our understanding of class conflict in Edwardian Britain combining social theory, archival research and multimodal discourse analysis to explore the meanings of image, colour, typography and texture choices in inscriptions, on the one hand, and the communicative and performative aspects of such vernacular literacy practices, on the other. I discovered that Edwardians of all classes realised the potential of the spaces in books to objectify their economic means and cultural necessities, and assert themselves in a social space, whether to uphold their rank or keep their distance from other groups. For the working classes, inscriptions offered an opportunity to demonstrate their recent intellectual emancipation by recording political messages and/or defacing books awarded as prizes. The middle classes, on the other hand, generally used inscriptions as symbolic gestures of social mobility to gain social capital and respect from peers. In contrast, the upper classes, who feared the collapse of hierarchical society, saw inscriptions as ways to advertise their wealth and high social status. I concluded that the inscriptions of all class groups have a high cultural value, as they act as important primary resources for understanding self-presentation, social conflict and class tension in early twentieth-century Britain. When combined with archival evidence, they unravel personal narratives that offer new accounts of history that stand in contrast to official narratives of national institutions of power. In applying for this fellowship, I aim to publish, share and expand upon my findings, as well as develop academic and professional networks.First, the fellowship will give me the time, space and resources to establish a strong publication record. It will enable me to publish papers in two peer-reviewed journals - Visual Communication and Journal of Historical Pragmatics - and start preparing chapters for a monograph for the Routledge Research in Literacy series.Second, the fellowship will allow me to disseminate my research to relevant academic and professional audiences, as well as the general public, through conference presentations and impact/engagement activities. The conferences will be in the main fields of my research (literacy studies, material/visual culture, social history), while activities will be focused on organising an exhibition and workshops within the university and at Glamorgan Archives.Third, the fellowship will support engagement with academic and professional networks within and beyond Cardiff University. Within Cardiff University, I will join the interdisciplinary visual culture research group ImageWorks, seek advice on digital archiving and big data from research software engineers in the Data Innovation Research Institute and develop my relationship with Special Collections. Outside of the university, I will share my research with Glamorgan Archives and the Edwardian Culture Network.Finally, the fellowship will enable me to produce an information leaflet for archives, museums and libraries that summarises the practical applications of my research. I will also examine opportunities to work with these stakeholders to increase the presence of vernacular writing/underrepresented groups in collections.