The politics of memory: Commemorating the centenary of the First World War

This symposium examines how the centenary of the First World War has been marked in five countries: Australia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. Given their distinctive national historical experiences and political cultures, the metanarratives of the war in these countries differ; as does the relationship between the state and sub-state actors in memory making. However, in each case the commemorations of the war have been shaped by a negotiation between the state and other agents of memory at the sub-state level. National memory has also been consciously projected into international relations, through carefully orchestrated anniversary ceremonies and performative memorial diplomacy. But, despite these transnational commemorative practices, the centenary of the war remains predominantly framed within local and national imaginings.

这次研讨会议论了一战百年在奥地利、法国、德国、英国、美国这五个国家是如何庆祝的。考虑到各国不同的历史经验以及政治文化,这些国家关于一战的元叙事各不相同,国家与次国家主体关系的记忆也是如此。不过,每个国家的战争纪念,都是国家与其他次国家层面主体协商的结果。通过精心策划的纪念仪式日以及表演性纪念外交,国家记忆被有意识地投射到了国际关系之中。除了这些跨国纪念活动,一战的记忆主要是在地方以及国家的想象框架内形成的。     

Portraits of the Artist as Politician,the Politician as Artist: Commemorating the Disraeli Phenomenon

This article examines the reception of Benjamin Disraeli as a bestselling novelist and respectable elder statesman as reflected in obituaries and biographical sketches appearing in the wake of his death in 1881. It starts out by tracing Disraeli’s entry into the popular imagination during his lifetime before focusing on the intersections of literary and political fame in late nineteenth-century commemorations. Disraeli’s posthumous media reception reveals that his deft migration between the literary and the political fields as closely interconnected arenas of self-fashioning crucially influenced his position as one of the most eminent figures in Victorian public life. It will be shown, however, that the narrative of the duality of Disraeli’s public acclaim is complicated by the celebrifying impact of his lifelong position as a social, ethnic, and intellectual outsider who transgressed Victorian norms and categories. In its attempt to unpick the multiple layers of Disraeli’s Victorian pre-eminence from the angle of Celebrity Studies, this article illuminates the tension between processes of self-fashioning and media appropriation that informs the production and consumption of fame and celebrity in nineteenth-century Britain and beyond. It thus participates in an ongoing scholarly conversation about the cultural history of fame and celebrity, presenting Disraeli as a type of media celebrity whose public profile was fashioned from a variety of dynamically interacting and mutually sustaining manifestations of fame.     

“纪念辛亥革命九十周年”国际学术讨论会综述

为了推动辛亥革命研究的深入开展,由中国社会科学院、中国史学会、湖北省社会科学联合会、武昌辛亥革命研究中心等四家单位共同主办的“纪念辛亥革命九十周年”国际学术讨论会于2001年10月16日至19日在武昌召开。出席这次会议的代表计有中国大陆学87人,台、港、澳地区学15人,旅外学3人,美国、俄罗斯、法国、澳大利亚、日本、韩国学22人,共提交论102篇。与会学围绕“辛亥革命与20世纪中国”这一主题,就以下分议题展开了热烈的讨论。     

科学地推进辛亥革命史研究——为纪念辛亥革命90周年而作

90年前发生的辛亥革命,是中国近代史上一场具有时代意义的资产阶级民主革命,是20世纪初叶中国发生的一个伟大历史事件,在中华民族振兴的进程中,具有不可磨灭的历史功绩。辛亥革命推翻了清朝统治,结束了我国两千多年的封建制度,实现了我国国家体制的一次重大转变,使民主共和的观念从此深入人心。     

Henry IV and Charles VI: the confirmation of the twenty-eight-year truce

The deposition of Richard II in 1399 caused serious problems for the new English king, Henry IV, in foreign affairs. Contemporaries believed that his seizure of the crown would provoke an outbreak of new hostilities with the French since the wife of the deposed monarch was none other than Isabel, a daughter of Charles VI, king of France. Indeed Charles took certain belligerent measures against henry, whom he stubbornly refused to recognize as the legitimate ruler of England, but stopped short of war because Isabel still remained in English custody. Henry IV, on the other hand, desired to improve relations with France because of his own tenuous hold on the English throne. Once Charles VI became convinced early in 1400 that Richard II had died in captivity, he abruptly changed his policy towards England and announced his intention of observing the terms set forth in the Twenty-Eight-Year Truce which he had originally concluded with his son-in-law in 1396. Later in May, Henry IV similarly proclaimed his willingness to honor that agreement. How both sides avoided an open clash and eventually confirmed the Twenty-Eight-Year Truce forms the central theme of this paper.     

Henry IV and Charles VI: the confirmation of the twenty-eight-year truce

The deposition of Richard II in 1399 caused serious problems for the new English king, Henry IV, in foreign affairs. Contemporaries believed that his seizure of the crown would provoke an outbreak of new hostilities with the French since the wife of the deposed monarch was none other than Isabel, a daughter of Charles VI, king of France. Indeed Charles took certain belligerent measures against henry, whom he stubbornly refused to recognize as the legitimate ruler of England, but stopped short of war because Isabel still remained in English custody. Henry IV, on the other hand, desired to improve relations with France because of his own tenuous hold on the English throne. Once Charles VI became convinced early in 1400 that Richard II had died in captivity, he abruptly changed his policy towards England and announced his intention of observing the terms set forth in the Twenty-Eight-Year Truce which he had originally concluded with his son-in-law in 1396. Later in May, Henry IV similarly proclaimed his willingness to honor that agreement. How both sides avoided an open clash and eventually confirmed the Twenty-Eight-Year Truce forms the central theme of this paper.     

厥功甚伟 其德永馨——纪念马衡先生逝世50周年

2005年是马衡先生逝世50周年。他从1925年故宫博物院成立直至1952年调离,在故宫服务了27年,任院长19年。本文按照时间线索,追溯了其在各个历史时期的贡献。博物院创建之初,马衡与同仁为捍卫和保存最初的博物院进行了不懈的努力,在任古物馆负责人期间取得了令人瞩目的成就;担任故宫博物院院长之后,他着重抓了文物的清点,八年抗战中又组织南迁文物的西迁疏散,保护文物安全,立下了不朽业绩,其间还多次举办国内外展览;抗日战争胜利后,他领导了故宫博物院的复原工作,接收散失文物,并顺应历史潮流,使南京政府空运北平本院文物珍品去台湾的妄想落空。马衡先生又是一位治学严谨的学者,金石学大师,是中国近代考古学和博物馆事业的开拓者。