Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Varnava, Andrekos
• Walsh, Michael J. K.

Titel

The politics of popular cultural production and performance in Britain since the Great War

Ist Teil von

• Contemporary British history, 2019-10, Vol.33 (4), p.457-463

Ort / Verlag

Abingdon: Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2019

Quelle

Taylor & Francis Journals Auto-Holdings Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The articles that follow were selected and developed from two conferences happening almost simultaneously on opposite sides of the world. The first was the Eric Richards Symposium in British and Australasian History held at Flinders University in Adelaide between 31 January and 3 February 2017, and the second was the Historians of British Art panel ‘Conflict as Cultural Catalyst in Britain’ at the College Arts Association, New York City, February 15–18, 2017. From these two meetings comes this special co-edited edition of Contemporary British History, which explores aspects of the relationship between conflict and cultural production in Britain (and where appropriate Australia and Ireland) throughout the 20th century. Through this selection of essays an examination is conducted into how, for example, cultural production derived from, or in anticipation of, conflict was used to foster specific social identities, pre-write and re-write regional, national and imperial histories, and catalyse or resist change (often violent) in Britain and beyond. Taken together they offer an imaginative and imaginary geography of what James Ryan described as ‘cultural formations, attitudes, beliefs and practices’. Changing societal and political attitudes can be detected in music, poetry, theatres, exhibitions, public spectacles and even in a child’s doll’s house, offering the historian an alternative lens through which to view Britain as it responded to diverse epoch-making world events in the twentieth century. These are not mere backdrops, imaginative landscapes and crowd-pleasing diversions… they are the tangible remains of a process, expressions of knowledge and power, and they are the sites in which emotive discussions and political aspirations were symbolised, compressed and played out often to an audience keen to participate in the debate. ‘Artefacts’, such as those considered in this special issue are therefore vital to our understanding of Britain and its century. They warrant more than the casual gaze or the fleeting glance. Decoding this cultural legacy requires us to seek an understanding of systems of signification, methods and reasons for production, performance, consumption, dispersal, usage, interpretation and longevity.