《贝奥武甫》的英雄观与英国文化传统

从文化的发展和起源入手来探析一个国家、一个民族和一个文明发展的轨迹和脉络,才能真正从学理和实践层面对当下有着实际的启示作用.本文通过对英雄史诗《贝奥武甫》的英雄观这一角度来探讨英国早期文化精神的起源与发展.一个异教的民族英雄变成了一个虔诚的基督教护教者的形象,但又保留了日耳曼民族的独特性格特征,这本身就能说明到了8世纪至10世纪,英国文化已经形成了一种新的形态,不同于日耳曼民族传统文化,也不同于欧洲大陆的基督教文化,这种新的文化形态传统直接影响着英国历史的走向.     

大传统与小传统——白蛇故事的三期型变

民间故事流传主要是口耳相传,由于记忆的局限性,如果不求助于文字文献就很难发现其变化的历史线索。然而在传统社会文字却主要掌握在官方系统,搜集整理民间故事的专业人士被称为稗官,西汉班固《汉书·艺文志》,“小说家者流,盖出于稗官。街谈巷语,道听途说者之所造也”。余嘉锡的《小说家出于稗官说》里认为,稗官是士人,“士传民语”,下情上达,沟通之用。     

The Ballast Trade: An Economic Driver In Seventeenth- And Eighteenth-century Newcastle Upon Tyne

The domination of the economy of Newcastle upon Tyne by the coal industry during the seventeenth- and eighteenth - centuries is well known. Many ships arriving to collect a cargo of coal did not carry cargo but carried ballast, often in the form of sand or gravel. Over many years a vast quantity of ballast was deposited along the banks of the river, often spilling into the water, causing obstruction to river traffic. The management of ballast became a major pre-occupation for the Burgesses of Newcastle and a complex organisation evolved to manage the problem. Ships masters paid fees to the town to deposit ballast at ballast staiths which was then conveyed to the ballast hills at some distance from the river. The cumulative amount of these fees provided a substantial income both to the town and the Ballast Conveyors who leased and ran the ballast staiths, resulting in significant competition between the leading citizens in the town to obtain a lease to work a ballast shore. The ballast trade and its associated social, political and business networks played a very important and previously little understood role in the economy of Newcastle during this period.     

Cabbage,Tradition and Bunce: Marion Donaldson and the Black Economy of the British Rag Trade in the 1970s

This article explores illicit aspects of the British rag trade in the 1970s through examination of so-called ‘cabbage’, a fundamental but hitherto obscure pillar of the hidden economy in British fashion production. Through analysis of oral, legal and material sources, it examines the ways in which the fashion company Marion Donaldson encountered ‘cabbage’, and how it negotiated with this as an integral part of doing business in the British rag trade. Hidden economies in ‘illegal but bona fide’ cultures of production and consumption are thus highlighted as a way of enriching our understanding of the complexities of the post-war British fashion business.