Resubmission of Middlebrow: A Transatlantic Interdisciplinary Research Network

在历史上，“中庸”指的是介于高度现代主义和流行文化之间的广泛的文化生产领域，以及20世纪初到20世纪中期主要与中产阶级有关的一系列品味和社会形态。近几十年来，“中层文人”一方面继续指定艺术和文学作品，这些作品既复杂又平易近人，另一方面，他们的受众是受过教育的、有抱负的--而不是精英。这个有争议的术语(可以是贬义的，也可以是庆祝的)在意识形态上的指控在很大程度上取决于观察者的立场，各种文化和基于阶级的紧张关系可以从中庸的相互竞争的定义中读出。对中庸文化的研究之所以重要，是因为它揭示了20世纪早期的社会和文化趋势，并帮助我们理解精英文化、流行文化和“中庸”文化之间的关系。这在现在尤其重要，因为在第一次世界大战后的几十年里，中庸文化产品的出现主要是印刷、发行、录音和广播方面的技术创新的结果。对这一现象的研究将促进对我们这个时代趋势的理解，因为互联网不仅导致了文本生产的大规模复兴，而且还为图像、广播节目和电影的传输创造了新的渠道。此外，互联网产生了新的受众和解释社区，呼应了20世纪初的中庸文化形态。例子包括电子读书俱乐部，新的波西米亚网络杂志，如themartset.com或fethertale.com，以及回忆大规模观测项目的日记和博客。文化、阶级和品味的等级代表着文学、历史和文化研究中一个日益重要的研究主题，但目前，我们对这些主题的理解受到缺乏跨学科合作机制的阻碍。这是一个严重的问题，因为只有将社会和文化史的视角与对文学、电影和媒体的批判性分析结合在一起，才能充分理解中庸文化。围绕中庸的紧张与阶级和品味的话语有关，这些话语覆盖了生活方式选择和文化消费的整个领域，从室内装饰、花园、设计和时尚到对音乐、电影和书籍的偏好。研究领域目前是无组织的，没有定期会议或出版物，没有专业协会，没有在线讨论的论坛，也没有有组织的网络存在。通过建立所需的结构，该网络将促进合作并鼓励未来的项目。此外，我们的目标是促进大西洋两岸的比较研究，以克服将英国和美国的中庸文化视为独立现象的倾向。除了比较中庸文化的具体表现形式外，我们还将试图了解文化分类实际上是如何构建的。我们的演示文稿和出版物将通过一系列其他类别探讨社会和文化资本的变化，特别是阶级、性别和民族。我们还将调查中庸文化的物质和经济维度，并探索中庸观众的性质以及他们对不同类型的电影、音乐和文学的接受。中庸阅读和藏书的历史将通过对藏书的研究来探索，比如建立于20世纪20年代的西比尔·坎贝尔图书馆。该网络的成员将来自美国和英国的不同学科，该项目的其他顾问包括档案管理员、记者和出版商。

In historical terms, 'middlebrow' refers to the extensive area of cultural production which situated itself between high modernism and popular culture, and to a set of tastes and social formations associated primarily with the middle class in the early to mid-twentieth century. In recent decades, 'middlebrow' has continued to designate, on the one hand, works of art and literature which combine sophistication with accessibility, and on the other, their educated and aspirational - rather than elite - audience. The ideological charge of this contested term (which can be pejorative or celebratory) depends largely on the standpoint of the observer, and a variety of cultural and class-based tensions can be read in the competing definitions of 'middlebrow'. The study of middlebrow culture matters because it illuminates social and cultural trends in the earlier twentieth century, and helps us understand the relationship between elite, popular and 'intermediate' cultures. It matters especially now because the emergence of middlebrow cultural products in the decades following the First World War was, primarily, a result of technical innovations in printing, distribution, recording, and broadcasting. Study of this phenomenon will advance understanding of trends in our own time, as the internet has not only resulted in a vast renaissance of textual production, but has also created new channels for the transmission of images, broadcast programmes, and films. In addition the internet has generated new audiences and interpretive communities which echo the middlebrow cultural formations of the early twentieth century. Examples include electronic book clubs, new bohemian web magazines such as thesmartset.com or feathertale.com, and diaries and blogs which recall the Mass Observation project. Hierarchies of culture, class and taste represent an increasingly important research theme in literary, historical and cultural studies, but at present, our understanding of these subjects is hampered by a lack of mechanisms for cross-disciplinary collaboration. This is a serious problem, since middlebrow culture can only be fully understood by bringing together perspectives from social and cultural history with critical analysis of literature, film, and the media. The tensions surrounding middlebrow are related to discourses of class and taste which range across the whole area of lifestyle choices and cultural consumption, from interior décor, gardens, design and fashion to preferences in music, film and books. The research field is currently unstructured, with no regular conferences or publications, no professional association, no forum for online discussion and no organised web presence. By establishing the required structure, the network will facilitate collaboration and encourage future projects. In addition, we aim to stimulate comparative transatlantic enquiry in order overcome the tendency to treat British and American middlebrow cultures as separate phenomena. As well as comparing specific manifestations of middlebrow culture, we will also seek to understand the way cultural taxonomies are actually constructed. Our presentations and publications will explore the inflection of social and cultural capital by a range of other categories, notably class, gender, and nation. We will also investigate the material and economic dimensions of middlebrow culture, and explore the nature of middlebrow audiences and their reception of different genres of film, music and literature. The history of middlebrow reading and book collecting will be explored through study of collections such as the Sybil Campbell library, established in the 1920s. Network members will be drawn from a variety of academic disciplines in the US and UK, and additional advisors to the project include archivists, journalists and publishers.