The war's portrayal has
always been shaped by contemporary cultural mores, and commemorative
documentaries demonstrate just how much the relationship between the creators
and consumers of popular culture has changed over the last fifty years.
For the fiftieth anniversary of 1914, the BBC
commissioned the twenty-six part series The
Great War, based around archive footage and featuring interviews with
veterans. There was an authoritative narrative voice, but no presenters. For the eightieth
anniversary, it collaborated with an American television company on a
six-part series littered with academic talking-heads. For the ninetieth anniversary,
it has had a range of TV presenter-celebrities - among them Michael Palin,
Dan Snow, Natalie Cassidy and Eamonn Holmes - on a journey of discovery of
their families' military connections. These invariably culminate next to graves and memorials in a display of the right
kind of televisual emotion at the moment the formula
demands and the audience has come to expect.
The focus of these programmes - family history
as a means of understanding the past - is worthy of note in itself. It is
indicative of the dramatic growth of family history as a leisure interest,
perhaps in response to the sense of dislocation inherent in modernity
Christina Briola on 12 Nov 10Discussing the Divine Comedy with Dante. Wow!!
Jeremy Greene on 16 Nov 10See previous post for advice. This is how I set it up the first two years without specific WHAP content or themes: The rules: You will imagine that each of the historical actors above has access to twitter, the expanded edition, to communicate to the other guests present. You will choose up to four (at least three) of them to role play in the "Twittering Masses" role play. As your historical person, during the Twittering Masses role play you will write, "tweet," at least four other persons. Two of the people should be in close proximity to you based on the painting above. Another tweet should go to the person you feel closest to (not by proximity) at the party - this could be based on ideology (MLK Jr. and Gandhi), background (Tagore and Gandhi), lifestyle (Gandhi and Mother Theresa), etc. Explain in your tweet why you are writing them. The other tweet should go to the person you see as most opposed, or farthest from you - Gandhi and Hitler or Gandhi and Gates or Gandhi and Churchill - in this tweet you should either try to bridge the gap between your differences or explain why the person is wrong in their beliefs. If you have only three guests - you will need to make 5 initial tweets. You will respond to each initial tweet. Then who knows . . . All tweets should have some connection to WHAP content or themes. You may want to comment on the surroundings or other guests . . .
