Hidden lives: domestic servants in the European country house, c.1700-1850

隐秘的生活：欧洲乡村别墅中的家庭佣人，约 1700-1850 年

• 批准号: AH/X012794/1
• 负责人: Jon Stobart
• 金额: $ 4.95万
• 依托单位: Manchester Metropolitan University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FX012794%2F1
• 关键词: Hidden; lives; domestic; servants; European

Servants were central to the functioning of country houses across Europe and beyond: from the kitchens to the stables; from emptying bedpans to managing the estate. Their working lives have attracted the attention of both historians and heritage professionals, however, country house servants as people remain surprisingly neglected. We lack detailed, scholarly and comparative research on their accommodation, social and familial networks, and experiences, particularly for the period before c.1850. Whilst recent years have seen something of an upturn in interest in these "hidden" lives in various parts of Europe, research remains localised and lacks a broader comparative framework. The proposed network seeks to provide such a framework and nurture further research by building a sustainable community of researchers with a shared interest in country house servants and a common conviction that comparative perspectives can offer important new insights. It is inter-disciplinary, inter-sectoral and international, drawing together scholars from history, art history and literary studies; linking academics with heritage professionals, and involving network members from eight countries across northern and western Europe. It is also an open network: 21 core members will participate throughout, but open calls for participants will be issued for each of the four workshops.These workshops will deepen membership of the network by engaging the same core group cross a series of discussions; encourage novel interactions between different disciplines and sectors; highlight commonalities and differences in the experiences and lives of country house servants across Europe, and nurture ECRs and PhD students by helping them to create robust and sustainable networks of their own. They will cover four broad themes: the first links to research on consumption and the material culture of the country house, exploring how the accommodation and possessions of servants varied across time and between countries; the second focuses servants' social and familial networks, bringing together big data projects with research on the lived experiences of servants to nuance our understanding of the geographical and social mobility of servants, and their responsibilities within their own households and families; the third explores servants' lives through their representation in literary and visual media, asking what these tell us about how servants were perceived and how about their life experiences. The final workshops will showcase and critically assess the ways in which servants' lives are interpreted and presented in houses open to the public.The research discussed at each workshop will feed into a virtual exhibition on the hidden lives of servants in country houses across northern and western Europe, based around key objects, individuals and archival sources. This provides a showcase for research and a important mechanism for engaging with the broader research community and the public, tapping into and nourishing a widespread interest in country houses and the lives of servants seen in he popularity of TV shows such as Downton Abbey. A collection of essays drawn from the workshops will be published open access to facilitate further dissemination of the research to a geographically and sectorally broad audience.

仆人对于欧洲及其他地区乡村别墅的运作至关重要：从厨房到马厩；从清空便盆到管理庄园。他们的工作生活吸引了历史学家和遗产专业人士的关注，然而，乡间别墅仆人作为人却令人惊讶地被忽视。我们缺乏对他们的住宿、社会和家庭网络以及经历的详细、学术和比较研究，特别是大约 1850 年之前的时期。尽管近年来欧洲各地对这些“隐藏”生活的兴趣有所上升，但研究仍然局限于本地，缺乏更广泛的比较框架。拟议的网络旨在提供这样一个框架，并通过建立一个可持续的研究人员社区来培育进一步的研究，这些研究人员对乡村房屋仆人有共同的兴趣，并且共同相信比较观点可以提供重要的新见解。它是跨学科、跨部门和国际性的，汇集了来自历史、艺术史和文学研究的学者；将学者与遗产专业人士联系起来，并让来自北欧和西欧八个国家的网络成员参与其中。它也是一个开放的网络：21 名核心成员将全程参与，但四个研讨会中的每一个都将公开招募参与者。这些研讨会将通过让同一核心小组参与一系列讨论来加深网络的成员资格；鼓励不同学科和部门之间的新颖互动；突出欧洲乡村房屋仆人的经历和生活的共性和差异，并通过帮助 ECR 和博士生创建自己的强大且可持续的网络来培养他们。它们将涵盖四个广泛的主题：第一个链接是对乡村别墅的消费和物质文化的研究，探索仆人的住宿和财产如何随着时间和国家的不同而变化；第二个重点关注仆人的社会和家庭网络，将大数据项目与仆人生活经历的研究结合起来，以加深我们对仆人的地理和社会流动性以及他们在自己的家庭中的责任的理解；第三部分通过文学和视觉媒体中的表现来探索仆人的生活，询问这些告诉我们仆人是如何被感知的以及他们的生活经历如何。最后的研讨会将展示并批判性地评估在向公众开放的房屋中解释和呈现仆人生活的方式。每次研讨会讨论的研究都将纳入一个虚拟展览，展示北部和北部乡间别墅中仆人的隐秘生活。西欧，以关键物品、个人和档案来源为基础。这为研究提供了一个展示机会，也是一个与更广泛的研究界和公众互动的重要机制，挖掘和培养人们对乡村别墅和仆人生活的广泛兴趣，这些都出现在《唐顿庄园》等电视节目中。研讨会上的论文集将公开出版，以促进研究成果进一步向地理和部门广泛的受众传播。