Histotainment
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
The Curse of the Poke Bonnet: Television's Version of History Transcript
The Curse of the poke bonnet: Television's version of history Transcript Date: Wednesday, 1 November 2006 - 12:00AM The Curse of the Poke Bonnet: Television's version of history Joan Bakewell I wish to begin this lecture by paying tribute to the man in whose memory it was instituted: Colin Matthew. I did not know him personally, but you do not have to go far in the world of scholarship and history to realise just how much he was admired and loved, and how extensive his influence was, not least in his role as the editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. His meticulous approach to research and his belief in the importance of both accuracy in reporting the past and wisdom in assessing its significance are virtues to which I pay tribute tonight. It is these very qualities that are called into question by how the public, and thus our children, are sometimes invited to regard history. I hope he would have endorsed what I have to say, and that his wife and his family who are here tonight will do as well. The curse of the poke bonnet! It was the fashion in the 1820s and onwards. It conceals and blinkers the vision. It is rather silly in its impact. It constrained its wearers, half the population, the women of the time, and it was a thing of straw. I use it, as you will see, as an emblem of some of the things that I have to say about television! Of all the many quotations about history, that it’s bunk, that it is written by the victors, I have chosen three to flag up my theme. -
Appendix Screenings and Additional Resources
Appendix Screenings and Additional Resources The analyses of various films and television programmes undertaken in this book are intended to function ‘interactively’ with screenings of the films and programmes. To this end, a complete list of works to accompany each chapter is provided below. Certain of these works are available from national and international distribution companies. Specific locations in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia for each of the listed works are, nevertheless, provided below. The entries include running time and format (16 mm, VHS, or DVD) for each work. (Please note: In certain countries films require copyright clearance for public screening.) Also included below are further or additional screenings of works not analysed or referred to in each chapter. This information is supplemented by suggested further reading. 1 ‘Believe me, I’m of the world’: documentary representation Further reading Corner, J. ‘Civic visions: forms of documentary’ in J. Corner, Television Form and Public Address (London: Edward Arnold, 1995). Corner, J. ‘Television, documentary and the category of the aesthetic’, Screen, 44, 1 (2003) 92–100. Nichols, B. Blurred Boundaries: Questions of Meaning in Contemporary Culture (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994). Renov, M. ‘Toward a poetics of documentary’ in M. Renov (ed.), Theorizing Documentary (New York: Routledge, 1993). 2 Men with movie cameras: Flaherty and Grierson Nanook of the North, Robert Flaherty, 1922. 55 min. (Alternative title: Nanook of the North: A Story -
Ralf Adelmann the Visual Potential of History. Images of the Past in Film, Television and Computer Games
Journal of Social Science Education © JSSE 2008/2009 Volume 7/8, Number 2/1, 2008/09, pp. 46-55 ISSN 1618-5293 Ralf Adelmann The Visual Potential of History. Images of the Past in Film, Television and Computer Games Abstract In a famous quote Marx said: “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” Today one would like to add, that film, television and computer games alter the historic event through modern visualizations of the past. Not only the historic facts and personages appear more than once, but also the representation of history multiplies itself in visual reconstructions, re-enactments and simulations in the media. What happens to history and its epistemology when it becomes an audiovisual experience? What are the different visual modes of knowledge production in historiography? Which uses of history become part of popular media culture? These questions are the starting point for an analysis of current examples of 'histotainment' and theoretical considerations about popular historiography. Contents 1. Document 2. Drama 3. Animation/Simulation References Keywords Visualisation, histotainment, visual historic reconstruction, re-enactment, simulation, media, history, modes of knowledge production, popular media culture, popular historiography Tony Soprano, the leading character in the television series “The Sopranos”, finds distraction in front of the television from his strenuous work as a mafia boss. One of his favourite programs is the History Channel. In the televisual representation of the past he occasionally finds inspirations for his little everyday problems. -
Documentary Screens: Non-Fiction Film and Television
Documentary Screens Non-Fiction Film and Television Keith Beattie 0333_74117X_01_preiv.qxd 2/19/04 8:59 PM Page i Documentary Screens This page intentionally left blank 0333_74117X_01_preiv.qxd 2/19/04 8:59 PM Page iii Documentary Screens Non-Fiction Film and Television Keith Beattie 0333_74117X_01_preiv.qxd 2/19/04 8:59 PM Page iv © Keith Beattie 2004 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2004 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 0–333–74116–1 hardback ISBN 0–333–74117–X paperback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. -
Buying Modernity? the Consumer Experience of Domestic Electricity in the Era of the Grid
Buying Modernity? The Consumer Experience of Domestic Electricity in the Era of the Grid A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of PhD in the Faculty of Life Sciences 2012 Emily Hankin Contents Abbreviations……………………………………………………………………………………………… 4 Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 5 Declaration…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 6 Copyright Statement…………………………………………………………………………………… 6 Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………………….. 7 Chapter 1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 8 1.1. ‘More Work for Mother’: The American and British Context…… 11 1.2. Buying Modernity: Consumption and Modernity…………………….. 14 1.3. The Housewife Consumer…………………………………………………………. 19 1.4. Electrical Technologies in the Home………………………………………….. 24 1.5. Gender and Technology……………………………………………………………. 28 1.6. Methodology…………………………………………………………………………….. 31 1.7. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………… 39 Chapter 2 Supply………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 42 2.1. The National “Grid”…………………………………………………………………… 43 2.2. Competition with the Gas Industry……………………………………………. 54 2.3. Modern Architecture and British Homes…………………………………… 61 2.4. The Domestic Consumer of Electricity……………………………………….. 67 2.5. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………. 76 Chapter 3 Cleanliness…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 78 3.1. Electric Ironing………………………………………………………………………….. 81 3.2. The Constructed Ideal of Domestic Cleanliness as Modernity……. 88 3.3. Vacuum Cleaners………………………………………………………………………. 92 3.4. Consumers of Electric -
School Loan Box Catalogue 585 KB
School Loan Box Catalogue TITLES Our loans box collection includes: 1. The Ancient Greeks 2. The Egyptians Boxed sets of original artefacts, replicas and Teachers' Notes on 3. The Romans 4. The Romans different themes. 5. Medieval life 6. Tudors Information boards on local history to accompany the boxes 7. Tudor clothes (please request separately) – many are recently updated. 8. The great fire 9. Local history/William Cobbett 10. Victorian education Costumes which are lent out in boxes: Anglo Saxons, Tudors, 11. Florence Nightingale Stuart, Victorian (Children and Adult) 12. Victorian washday Large objects, newspapers and magazines are for loan as separate 13. Victorians at home 14. WW2 items. 15. 1950s & 1960s 16. Seaside special 18.History in living memory 19.Toys through time 20.The stone age x2 21.Bronze and Iron age 22. Anglo Saxons and Vikings 2 Borrowing the Boxes Loans boxes are usually borrowed for a three week period, which costs £15 per box. We are very happy to loan them for longer if needs be, just ask. All boxes will be sterilised and quarantined for at least 72 hours before being loaned out to ensure they are COVID safe. A full catalogue of the collection is set out on the following pages. Many of the objects lend themselves to handling sessions. They do not have information labels attached, since this can limit exploration and deduction by those using them. Instead, you will find a set of Teachers' Notes with each box. Boxes can be collected from the Museum during normal opening hours (10.00 a.m. -
Introduction: Neo-Victorian Television: British Television Imagines the Nineteenth Century
Notes Introduction: Neo-Victorian Television: British Television Imagines the Nineteenth Century 1. Such as for example Sarah Waters’s Tipping the Velvet (1998), Affi nity (2002a) and Fingersmith (2002b), or A.S. Byatt’s Possession (1991), a detective and love story set against an academic background, paralleled by the love story of the two Victorian poets whose connection they are trying to uncover (adapted by Neil LaBute in 2002), which is similarly concerned with the discovery and construction of alternative truths, of knowing the past beyond the accounts of official history. A similar theme of hidden histories also drives her earlier collection of two short stories, titled Angels and Insects (1995), the first part of which was also made into a film (Philip Haas 1995). Concerns with alter- native histories also form the basis of Michel Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White (2002). Charles Palliser’s The Quincunx (1992), written in a style reminiscent of both Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, but with the ben- efit of hindsight and a lack of Victorian constraints regarding its sometimes candid subject matter, similarly strives to uncover an alternative and less tidy Victorian age, full of mysteries, and real in the explicit, and almost tactile way in which it paints visions of the squalor and the depth of human despair and poverty into which it delves. 2. As Caughie has pointed out, ‘films continually returned not simply to the past but to a very particular past: to the period in the first few decades of this century ... in which Britain began to detect the fault lines of its Imperial destiny. -
Seeing It for Real
Seeing it for real: An investigation into the effectiveness of theatre and theatre techniques in museums Executive Summary and Abridged Report Research funded by The Arts and Humanities Research Board Anthony Jackson Paul Johnson Helen Rees Leahy Verity Walker September 2002 Seeing it for real Acknowledgements The research team would like to express its gratitude to: • The class teachers and all the pupils at the four schools which participated in the project, for their unwavering co-operation, enthusiasm and assistance during the research fieldwork: MEDLOCK PRIMARY SCHOOL, OSWALD ROAD JUNIOR SCHOOL, both in Manchester; HERMITAGE JUNIOR SCHOOL, London; and HEADINGTON JUNIOR SCHOOL, Oxford. • The education department personnel and performers at The People's History Museum (Manchester) and The Imperial War Museum (London) for their invaluable collaboration and their significant contribution to the design and implementation of the research. • The People's History Museum for permission to reproduce illustrations 1 and 3, and the Imperial War Museum for permission to reproduce illustrations 2 and 4. • The teachers and children at the participating schools for permission to reproduce the pictures in this report. • The Arts and Humanities Research Board for the award of the research grant that made this project possible. The title of the report ‘Seeing it for real' is taken from the response of one of the children at Oswald Road Junior School who had taken part in the ‘theatre pathway’ through the People’s History Museum. Asked what had most impressed her about the visit, two months later, she said it was the chance to see the ‘real thing', which was much better than ‘just being told” or looking at photographs which were ‘not the same as going to see it for real life'. -
Living History As Performance: an Analysis of the Manner in Which Historical Narrative Is Developed Through Performance
LIVING HISTORY AS PERFORMANCE: AN ANALYSIS OF THE MANNER IN WHICH HISTORICAL NARRATIVE IS DEVELOPED THROUGH PERFORMANCE Megan Mateer A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2006 Committee: James Forse, Advisor William Armaline Graduate Faculty Representative Jonathan Chambers Cynthia Baron © 2006 Megan Mateer All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Dr. James Forse, Advisor Throughout the twentieth century, historians have sought a variety of new ways to engage history, many through the use of performance techniques. New methodologies aided by technology have allowed historians to gain new insights into the past and share those insights with the public. In this study I examine how four methodologies have influenced each other in attempt to achieve this goal: two living history museums: Colonial Williamsburg and Plimoth Plantation; one outdoor historical drama, Trumpet in the Land; three examples of experimental archaeology: the Pamunkey Project, Buckskinners, and the Washburn-Norlands Center; and two PBS productions about living in the past: Frontier House and Colonial House. These categories have two things in common. First they are all attempting to examine some aspect or event from the past, second they all use performance techniques to do this. My argument for this study lies in a two-fold examination. First, in discussing the constructs of each of these methodologies, I argue that it is apparent that the first three categories have been highly influential in the development of the fourth. Second, the misuse of performance techniques has proven ultimately problematic for the PBS productions in their declared efforts to take a step back in time. -
Women and History on TV
CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by University of Lincoln Institutional Repository ‘No one wants to be lectured at by a woman’: Women and history on TV Erin Bell University of Lincoln lthough in some cases history on television has Story of India (BBC2 August-September 2007); presenter- Arepresented women’s lives in the past, this remains an led series such as David Starkey’s Monarchy (Channel exception rather than a rule. Whilst the overall volume of 4 2004-7), Simon Schama’s A History of Britain (BBC2, programming has grown dramatically since the mid-1990s, then moved to BBC1 2000-2002) or Bettany Hughes’ The with the launch of the History Channel and UKTV History, Spartans (Channel 4 November-December 2003), and it is apparent that not only in terms of the individuals and the hugely successful celebrity genealogy series, Who Do events considered, but also in terms of those allowed to You Think You Are? (BBC 2004-present).4 act as mediators between the past and the TV audience, A great deal of the information collected in the there are marked gender differences. In the mid-2000s the course of this research comes from interview material: to vast majority of historians representing their profession on date, twenty historians involved in history programming TV, especially as presenter-historians, are men. Although have been interviewed, including seven women. This the majority of historians teaching in higher education are represents a deliberate attempt to talk to female historians, male, this imbalance is exaggerated further on screen. -
The Home Front in Leyton and Leytonstone 1939
The Home Front in Leyton and Leytonstone 1939 - 1945 Everyday life on the ‘Home Front’ in Leyton and Leytonstone during the Second World War is vividly depicted in this companion publication to the author Gary Heales’ ‘The Home Front in Walthamstow 1939 - 1945’, drawing on the unique photographic and object collections at Vestry House Museum, London Borough of Waltham Forest, together with personal reminiscences and other written sources. Leyton & Leytonstone History Society Vestry House Museum, www.leytonhistorysociety.org.uk/ London Borough of Waltham Forest Gary Heales ISBN 978-1-9998278-1-6 The Home Front in Leyton and Leytonstone, 1939 – 1945 by Gary Heales Index by David Boote The contents of this publication must not be reproduced unless authorised by Vestry House Museum, London Borough of Waltham Forest, Vestry Road, Walthamstow, London E17 9NH Published in 2017 by Leyton & Leytonstone Historical Society in association with Vestry House Museum, London Borough of Waltham Forest Leyton & Leytonstone Historical Society 27 The Croft, Friday Hill, London E4 6EZ website : www.leytonhistorysociety.org.uk ISBN 978-1-9998278-1-6 Front cover photos: Upper left: V-2 rocket which fell at Fairmead Bottom Road, High Beech, Epping but did not explode Upper right: The Woman’s Voluntary Service members Emergency Feeding Unit on exercise in Cann Hall Lower left: Children from Oliver Road, Leyton, celebrate VE (Victory in Europe) Day Lower right: Warden’s Post by the Green Man Pond, Leytonstone Back cover photos: A card from an ‘Evacuee’ game; a WD & HO Wills cigarette card on how to equip your refuge room and keep occupied during an air raid; a metal badge for a member of the Home Guard to wear; an ‘Air Raid Wardens Wanted’ poster. -
Negotiating the Imperial War Museum's First World War
Commemoration, Memory and the Process of Display: Negotiating the Imperial War Museum's First World War Exhibitions, 1964 - 2014 Submitted by James Wallis to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Human Geography In October 2015 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. 1 Abstract This thesis explores the key permanent and temporary First World War exhibitions held at the Imperial War Museum in London over a fifty year period. In so doing, it examines the theoretical, political and intellectual considerations that inform exhibition-making. It thus illuminates the possibilities, challenges and difficulties, of displaying the 'War to End All Wars'. Furthermore, by situating these displays within their respective social, economic and cultural contexts, this produces a critical analysis of past and present practices of display. A study of these public presentations of the First World War enables discussion of the Museum’s primary agendas, and its role as a national public institution. In considering this with the broader effect of generational shifts and the ever-changing impact of the War’s cultural memory on this institution, the thesis investigates how the Imperial War Museum has consistently reinvented itself to produce engaging portrayals of the conflict for changing audiences.