A Feminist Library

IF 2 0 HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY Women-A Cultural Review Pub Date : 2022-10-02 DOI:10.1080/09574042.2022.2129600
Victoria Stewart
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

As Alison Light points out in the introduction to this new collection of her writing, Inside History is a little reminiscent of a festschrift, though one in which the contributions are written by the subject herself. But Light notes that since 1995 she has not held a full-time academic post, and many of the essays presented here were originally written for publications aimed at a general rather than specifically academic readership. Indeed, one of the themes of Light’s work since the 1980s has been to interrogate that distinction between ‘general’ and ‘academic’ readers, not only by giving popular works of literature the kind of scrutiny that had previously largely been reserved for ‘classics’, but also by considering issues of education, class and identity in the context of life-writing. It’s worth remembering that when Light published her still hugely influential book Forever England: Femininity, Literature and Conservatism Between the Wars (1991), it would have seemed unlikely that there would be an academic conference devoted to the legacy of Daphne Du Maurier’s 1938 novel Rebecca (at the time of writing ‘Re-imagining Rebecca’ was scheduled to be held at the University of Sussex in May 2022). That the middlebrow would be a category almost as fiercely contested and debated as modernism might equally have been surprising. As Light points out, scholars in cultural studies and film were breaking ground where English would follow, and her writing consistently illustrates a determination not to be confined by traditional academic categorisations. This isn’t just a case of employing an interdisciplinary approach, or, for instance, examining Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film adaptation of Rebecca alongside the novel, as Light does in ‘Hitchcock’s Rebecca: A Woman’s Film?’, first published in Sight & Sound in 1996. It extends to the self-reflexive strand in Light’s work. For instance, in ‘Outside History? Stevie Smith, Women Poets and the National Voice’, which appeared in English in 1994, Light moves from a comparison between Smith and Philip Larkin in relation to the notion of ‘Englishness’ to reflect on the role of poetry as a means of inculcating Alison Light, Inside History: From Popular Fiction to Life-Writing. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022, x +234 pp., £85, ISBN: 9781474481557
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正如艾莉森·莱特(Alison Light)在她的新文集的引言中指出的那样,《历史内幕》有点让人想起一种节日节选,尽管其中的文章是由作者自己写的。但莱特指出,自1995年以来,她就没有担任过全职学术职位,这里展示的许多文章最初都是为普通读者而不是专门为学术读者撰写的。事实上,自20世纪80年代以来,光的作品的主题之一就是质疑“一般”和“学术”读者之间的区别,不仅给流行文学作品提供了以前主要留给“经典”的那种审查,而且还考虑了生活写作背景下的教育、阶级和身份问题。值得记住的是,当Light出版她至今仍极具影响力的著作《永远的英格兰:战争期间的女性、文学和保守主义》(1991)时,似乎不太可能有一个学术会议专门讨论达芙妮·杜穆里埃1938年的小说《丽贝卡》的遗产(在撰写《重新想象丽贝卡》的时候,计划于2022年5月在苏塞克斯大学举行)。中产阶级几乎会成为一个与现代主义一样激烈竞争和争论的类别,这可能同样令人惊讶。正如莱特所指出的那样,文化研究和电影领域的学者在英语领域开辟了新天地,而她的作品始终表明了她不受传统学术分类限制的决心。这不仅仅是一个采用跨学科方法的案例,或者,例如,将阿尔弗雷德·希区柯克1940年改编自《丽贝卡》的电影与小说结合起来,就像在《希区柯克的《丽贝卡:一部女人的电影》中那样。,于1996年首次发表在《视觉与听觉》杂志上。它延伸到光作品中的自我反思。例如,在《外部历史?》史蒂夫·史密斯,《女性诗人与国家之声》,于1994年以英文出版,莱特从史密斯和菲利普·拉金之间关于“英国性”概念的比较开始,思考诗歌作为一种灌输手段的作用,艾莉森·莱特,《历史内部:从通俗小说到生活写作》。爱丁堡:爱丁堡大学出版社,2022,x +234页,85英镑,ISBN: 9781474481557
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Women-A Cultural Review
Women-A Cultural Review HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-
自引率
9.10%
发文量
34
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