麦克卢汉的学术转向

麦克卢汉一生拿了5个学位,这给他打下了博大精深的基础,使他能够完成一次又一次的学术转向。从2 0世纪40年代起,他从文学批评转向社会批评、从文学转向传播学、从单一学科研究转向跨学科研究。到2 0世纪60年代后期,其声誉达到顶峰。他的学术转向经历了3个高峰:《机器新娘》(195 1)是世界上第一部研究广告的文化批评专著;《谷登堡星汉》(1962 )研究印刷术,是整个西方历史的重新表述;《理解媒介》(1964 )研究电子人,成为不朽的传世经典。这些转向使他成就为2 0世纪最副盛名的媒介理论家之一。

Turns and Transitions in Marshall McLuhan's Research Interests

In the 1950s and 60s, Marshall McLuhan, a university professor of English literature, suddenly boomed to fame and became a world known figure of communication studies. How he managed to complete the turns from textual studies of New Criticism to cultural criticism, from cultural criticism to social criticism, from literary studies to communication theories, from high brow culture to popular culture and from a study-confined scholar to a public figure? This paper is an attempt to solve this riddle of enduring interest.