通俗科學容易令人聯想到向普通人傳播科學知識的「科普」。但通俗科學不僅是科普而已，還包含大眾文化對科學的反應及表現、學術菁英圈外所產生的科學知識等不同面向。十八、十九世紀以降在歐洲興盛的各種以「通俗科學」為名的事物，是應運工業時代新興的閱聽大眾而生，也牽涉近代科學在專業化或體制化發展過程中的劃界。大眾對通俗科學的需求不完全是由於理性或智識上的啟蒙，也有消費市場、感官娛樂與宗教宣傳等各種因素。近三十年來，西方科學史學者借鑒傳播學、社會學、文化史或閱讀史等領域的方法進行通俗科學的歷史研究，尤其在英國維多利亞時期的案例上獲得豐碩的成果。本文爬梳英語學界在這方面的發展，結語並舉臺灣學術社群近年來的代表著作，說明東亞通俗科學史研究發展的可能性，期望能拋磚引玉啟發更多近現代中國或東亞視角的研究。

Historians of science are inspired by other disciplines such as science communication, sociology, cultural history and the history of reading, to conduct historical studies of popular science. Tthese studies have been particularly fruitful for Victorian Britain in the past three decades. This article introduces some important works and issues of the scholarship in the Anglosphere. Popular science is easily deemed to be a synonym for “science popularization”, the practices of communicating scientific knowledge to lay people. However, science popularization is only one dimension of popular science, which includes other dimensions such as the reactions to and representation of science in mass culture as well as scientific knowledge produced outside elite circles. Many media featuring “popular science” have thrived in Europe since the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These entertaining, sometimes awe-inspiring, popular products of science emerged in response to a newly-growing class of readers and audiences in the industrial era. They were found in various forms of media ranging from publishing to stage performances. The development of popular science also came alongside the transformation of expertise in modern science over the course of the nineteenth century.

科普; 通俗文化; 閱讀 ;展示與表演 ;英國維多利亞時期

science popularization; popular culture; reading; display and performance; Victorian Britain