Shifts in the way we live

The World of the Twentieth Century

www.crossref-it.info has just introduced a new section on site about ‘The World of the Twentieth Century’. This week we are adding to articles about momentous events of the century with some perspectives about how the way British people lived changed between 1900 and 2000.

Recently there was much adulation over the birth of a new royal, Princess Charlotte – but did you realise that there were at least two eras in the twentieth century when the stability of the British monarchy looked in doubt? Check out Monarchy

Right now, Greece is dealing with the cumulative effects of spending without the bank reserves to pay. How did running up personal debt become the norm for many in the UK from the 1980s onwards? See Income & consumerism 

The working environment is often reflected in literature. How did this change for many Brits after the 1970s? Find out at World of work

What helped many UK citizens fall back in love with the British landscape in which few actually lived? Discover the answer at Humans & the environment

Our grandparents and great-grandparents grew up celebrating Empire Day (as Queenie remembers at the start of Andrea Levy’s Small Island). Why is this no longer the case? Find out at Colonialism & post-colonialism

These are just a few of the areas covered by the extra material being launched today to help users make sense of the tangible world of the twentieth century. Remember, it is contextual awareness like this that can help you succeed at A Level English Literature!

Moments that shook the world

2015 anniversaries 

2015 has been full of anniversaries – ways of remembering key events that shaped the course of history:

• 800 years ago this year, English King John was compelled to sign the Magna Carta, establishing that even a monarch was subject to the rule of law
• It is 200 years since the British victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo
• 100 years ago was the desperate defeat of Allied forces in the Dardanelles campaign, during the First World War
• It is 70 years since the declaration of Victory in Europe, marking the defeat and downfall of the Nazi domination of Western Europe – the liberation of their concentration camps helped others see the evils of the regime in all its grisly reality
• It is 25 years since East Germans flooded through the Berlin Wall and it fell, the symbol of division and communist oppression. That same year Nelson Mandela was freed from incarceration 
• Only 10 years ago London was rocked by the efforts of four suicide bombers which left 700 people injured or killed

Why do we memorialise these events? Because they are an anchor as life passes; they remind us of how we lived, what kind of people we were when the event happened.

Many situations in the list above commemorate the overthrow of oppression and control – the impulse of the human spirit for freedom. Events such as the end of war and liberation of Auschwitz altered the way people thought about themselves.

Perspective shifts and the arts

The Elephant Celebes by Max Ernst

It is these shifts in perspective which the arts pick up on. Just as modernist painters reflected the sense of moral disintegration in the aftermath of the First World War, so authors and poets channeled the angst or optimism of the era into their works:

• For example, the looming danger of George Orwell’s novel 1984 picked up on the very real oppression of Stalin when he attempted to blockade West Berlin in1948 (the year in which Orwell wrote his book).

If you are studying literature it is expected that you will understand how events provided a context against which writers created their texts. Indeed, examiners will award 25% of your marks in A Level English Literature on the basis of your ability to:

Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and received. 

The World of the Twentieth Century

www.crossref-it.info already has lots of background material to help you make sense of literature up to the end of the Victorian era. Now it has just introduced a new section on site about ‘The World of the Twentieth Century’. Available are eight new articles focusing on key events between 1900 and 2000, such as:

• the two World Wars, the Cold War and conflict in Ireland
• The reshaping of the economy after the Wall Street Crash 
• The shift of power and territory according to ideology in post-war Europe and Palestine 
• The change in society as a result of immigration and integration.

Texts such as The Great Gatsby, The Handmaid’s Tale and Wide Sargasso Sea make better sense when you can place the worlds they depict against the reality which their respective authors faced.

There will be more to come, so keep looking out for updates!

Summer shows

Exams will soon be over 

Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Yes really! And the rest of the summer term is a great time to let all you have accumulated over your year(s) spent studying AS/A2 Level English Literature sink in.

Often this is the time when, as students, you suddenly ‘get’ what the requirements of A Levels are all about, rather than feeling out of your depth after the relative shallows of GCSE English. You stop floundering and start swimming. And because of this, you might actually start enjoying literature more!

If you have been studying a play text in the past months (or are soon about to) the easing of pressure after the exam period is also a great time to catch a live production of your drama text. Unfortunately the great majority of them are in London, but with longer days and the summer holidays beckoning, perhaps you could make a day of it in the capital.

Shakespeare

Everyone covers the bard.

If your syllabus includes a tragedy see if you can get to:

• Hamlet, at the Barbican Theatre, London, 25.8 – 31.10.15 (with Benedict Cumberbatch)
• Macbeth, at the Young Vic, London, from 3.12.15 - 3.1.16
• Othello, at the RSC, Stratford, is more imminent, running from 4.6 – 28.8.15

If you are studying a problem play, like Measure for Measure, you will benefit from seeing one of these productions:

• Measure for Measure, at the Globe Theatre, London, from 20.6 – 17.10.15
• The Merchant of Venice, at the RSC, Stratford, between 15.6 – 2.9.15
• Measure for Measure, at the Young Vic, London, from 8.10 – 7.11.15

Perhaps you are studying a Romance play like The Tempest:

• At the new Sam Wannamaker indoor theatre (next to London’s Globe Theatre), a companion piece, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, will be showing from 25.11.15 – 21.4.16

Meanwhile, a Shakespearean comedy on offer is:

• As You Like It, at the Globe Theatre, London, from 15.5 – 5.9.15

Jacobean drama

Shakespeare’s contemporaries were creating a vivid range of comedies and tragedies, sometimes blurring the two so that the humour is dark and there are flashes of laughter amongst the gore. What’s it like on stage? Check out three productions at the Swan Theatre, the RSC’s more intimate venue:

• The Jew of Malta, from 1.6 – 8.9.15
• Love’s Sacrifice, from 6.6 – 24.6.15
• Volpone, from 3.7 – 12.9.15

Comedies of manners

Before the syllabuses change, current students may well be studying a seventeenth or eighteenth century ‘Comedy of Manners’ such as She Stoops to Conquer, The School for Scandal, The Rivals or The Way of the World. If you want to see how the style of writing translates onto stage, and how the comedy works, why not go to see

• The Beaux Stratagem, at the National Theatre, London, from 3.6-31.8.15
• The School for Scandal, at the Park Theatre, London, from 12.6 – 7.7.15.

Mid twentieth century

There’s hope for those of you living in the north of England or Scotland. Two productions are coming up from autumn onwards:

• Waiting for Godot, at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, from 19.9 – 10.10.15
• The Crucible, at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, from 18.2 – 19.3.16
• In London you can catch the RSC’s Death of a Salesman, currently running until 18.7.15

If you know of other productions around the regions, please let us know – email info@crossref-it.info.

Above all, enjoy the experience and - after all your hard work - remind yourself why you took English in the first place…