The history of comedy is difficult to write: it seems that comedy has become more sophisticated, more inter-textual, more knowing and more fast-paced as the decades went by. You will find here an 8 minute sketch from That Was The Week That Was from the BBC in 1963. At the time this was definitely avant-garde comedy.
...
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Week 7 L3 Popular Culture in Britain since 1945
Our next short zoom class will be next Tuesday, 17th at 11:30am for the morning class, and at 4pm for the afternoon class. Please come prepared with the question you have.
The videos I made at home this week are here
Chapter 11 (visual art three) https://youtu.be/F94xDP203X0
Chapter 12 (visual art four) https://youtu.be/ge0eOJnnJX8
A video on Banksy’s destruction trick is here https://youtu.be/vxkwRNIZgdY
If you liked Banksy’s sarcastic amusement park, there is a half hour video here
Marking: the classroom test you would normally have done has been replaced with a homework assignment :
Write a structured essay on the following subject
How have different British artists and British institutions attempted to ensure that visual art is not only for the elite ?
Write 1000 - 1300 words, and send it by email to myself (john.mullen AT THE ADDRESS univ-rouen.fr )by the 10th of December at midnight.
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
Agrégation class Rouen on the BBC
The videos and other resources for this week will be posted here tomorrow morning.
Our next zoom class is Wednesday 18 at 4pm.
Agrégation 2021. The BBC 1922-1995 and public service broadcasting. Post 38: more key dates
Some more important events.
I recommend you make up your own timeline of the BBC,
where you will place events which you think are key. Here are a few dates taken
from the BBC online history feature « on this day ».
1953 The day the House of
Lords vote their approval for the
introduction of commercial TV
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/26/newsid_4032000/4032711.stm
1975 BBC presenter Ross McWhirter assassinated
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/27/newsid_2528000/2528787.stm
1983 TV cameras introduced
into the House of Lords (the House of
Commons agreed later, but this decision showed a new view of what lawmaking
should be, and what broadcasting should be.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/8/newsid_2536000/2536517.stm
Monday, November 09, 2020
Questions of constitution
Questions of constitutions.
I invited
you to send me questions by email and someone sent me a question about constitutional
monarchies, parliamentary democracies and anglophone countries. Thank you to
them.
They pointed
out that some of the expressions used can be a little confusing – what is the
difference between a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy, and
which epithets apply best to which countries?
A
constitutional monarchy is a state which has a king or queen, but in which
their powers are limited to what is written in a constitution or accepted in an
unwritten constitution. This is more or less in distinction with an absolute
monarchy. In Britain, before the English Revolution (or as some people call it,
the English civil war), the king could impose some taxes on his own initiative,
dissolve parliament and rule without it if it suited him, and so on. This was
one of the reasons behind the civil war in England, which opposed parliament
and king (note that at this time parliament did not represent democracy, which
was still considered an extreme idea – parliament was elected by rich people
only).
After the republic
under Cromwell, the son of the executed king was asked to come back and be king
again. However, as one scholar has said « what has been written by the
sword cannot be undone by the pen » and so the king came back under very
different conditions. He could no longer rule without parliament, and shortly
afterwards it was enacted that parliament should decide how much money he received
– paying him a salary in effect. This was now a constitutional monarchy, and
the fact that the constitution was not a single written document did not change
much.
All the
countries which Elizabeth is queen of today (including Australia, Canada and
New Zealand) are of course constitutional monarchies, as are Belgium, Spain,
the Netherlands etc.
Other
democracies like France or the USA are presidential systems. The parliament is
important, but the most important decision maker is the president. In these
countries the head of state is not a symbolic role.
You will find here an explanation of Britain's unwritten constitution
And here a recent argument about the subject
https://www.euronews.com/2019/09/07/does-the-uk-need-a-written-constitution
Send me by email other questions you have!
Week 7 : this week’s classes
Week 7 : this week’s classes
Every week there will be this summary
(on Monday or Sunday) of how the classes will go.
Tuesday L3 British Popular culture
since 1945
Groupe de 11h
There will be a short zoom meeting at
11 :30am. The link will be posted here an hour before. Prepare the questions
you have, which you will be able to put live or in the chat.
Then there will be a couple of my video
lectures posted here, which you may watch when you wish.
In the zoom class I will give you the
homework assignment which is replacing the classroom test this semester. You have
one month to do it.
Groupe de 15h30
There will be a short zoom meeting at
4pm. The link will be posted here an hour before. Prepare the questions you
have, which you will be able to put live or in the chat.
Then there will be a couple of my video
lectures posted here, which you may watch when you wish.
In the zoom class I will give you the
homework assignment which is replacing the classroom test this semester. You have
one month to do it.
Agrégation : La BBC et le
service public de l’audiovisuel 1922-1995
The class (17h05 – 18h05) will take
place on zoom. Everything will be explained. The link will be posted here
shortly before
Wednesday classes
Wednesday is a bank holiday this
week.
Check the blog during the week, though,
as there will be some video links to keep you thinking.
Sunday, November 08, 2020
Writing history, and Trump
I have been working a lot on what it means to write history, and this article on Donald Trump is a useful contribution.
Saturday, November 07, 2020
Agrégation anglais 2021 La BBC 1922-1959. Post 37: women in the BBC in the 1920s
Of course, the BBC was massively male-dominated in the 1920s, and of course large numbers of women worked in the home bringing up children and keeping house. But there were also millions of women in work (the percentage of women in work varied greatly from town to town, depending on the availability of work in local factories), and some of them made an impact in the BBC. This article tells a part of their story.
Friday, November 06, 2020
Agrégation anglais 2021 BBC 1922-1995 Post 36 : Opening titles 1960s
Agrégation anglais 2021 BBC 1922-1995 Post 36 : Opening
titles 1960s
Here are some very short videos with opening sequences from
classic BBC shows from the 1960s (although two of them lasted for several decades).
They help to grasp something of the atmosphere.
Dr Who https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNszKKAtEwU
Z cars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKiWcTg5cg0
Top of the Pops https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su9JwDTVXSA
Wednesday, November 04, 2020
BBC 1922 to 1995 agrégation anglais 2021. Post 35. The Wednesday Play
This political play by Denis Potter was one of the well known series presented in The Wednesday Play. It was firs5 broadcast in 1965. Supporters of the BBC are generally proud of the series, which helped launch the career of Ken Loach, among others.
Week 6 Master 1 seminar on the First World War
This is the last class concerning the first
world war, and it is entirely composed
of videos which I have filmed and links I am suggesting.
If you have any questions, do send me an
email john.mullen at univ hyphen rouen dot fr
Here is chapter 10, introducing commemoration.
(35 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWtFSLdPUFs
Here is chapter 11, looking at local and
family pride (35 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u6hicBWuck&
Here is chapter 12, looking at activist
approaches to commemoration (35 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF6V8qwf-Tg&
Here is the short Christmas Truce video
mentioned in the classes (4 mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWF2JBb1bvM
The hit song from 1918 “Oh, it’s a lovely
war” (3 mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6RnirpFaZk
Important debate between historians at the
British Library. How should we remember the First World War? (90 mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvr7UJI47UM
Week 6 M1 MEEF Civilisation britannique : Migrations, inclusion, diversité
MEEF M1 British civilization class (which would have been at
9 O Clock)
In the next few weeks, some of the classes will be recorded
on video (as you have seen in recent weeks). Other classes, or parts of
classes, will be live via BBB or zoom.
This week, everything is video, nothing is live. But check
here again during the week, because there will be new information on the blog
for you.
For this
week, chapter 9 of my own lectures is here.
This is an
introduction to the question of “migrations, diversité et inclusion” and the
concepts and debates which surround these issues in the very specific case
of the UK. In this domain, the UK is very different both from France and from
the USA (if you are ever tempted to write “le modèle anglo-saxon” stop that
immediately : it is nonsense).
And here is
chapter 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvWlHNK8bVk
This is the
first in a series of chapters examining different minority communities, and
giving a very brief sketch of their histories and a look at a few well-known
figures from their group. Of course, today, in the UK, this is mostly a question
not of immigrants but of grandchildren or great grandchildren of immigrants. I
will be looking at Irish and South East Asian and Caribbean. In this chapter I
look at Jewish immigration.
Literature,
Television and cinema have sometimes wanted to explain and portray the
experience of minority communities. I recommend you have a look at this “reality
TV” series about the Jewish community in
Manchester.
Here is
episode one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfVy5uwwktA
If you have
been following the news, you will have seen M Blanquer saying that there has
been a rise in our universities of dangerous approaches, coming from English-speaking countries, to the study of
identity or of ethnic minorities. As I imagine you guessed, I do not agree with
him, but it is up to you to think about this.
Monday, November 02, 2020
Communiqué de l'Association française d'études américaines
Communiqué du bureau de l’AFEA en réponse aux propos du ministre de l'Éducation Nationale sur les universitaires:
Le
16 octobre dernier, notre collègue Samuel Paty, professeur
d’histoire-géographie au collège du Bois-d’Aulne de Conflans Sainte
Honorine, a été assassiné de la façon la plus atroce qui soit pour avoir
enseigné un cours sur la liberté d’expression. Jamais un enseignant
n’avait été la cible d’un attentat meurtrier dans l’exercice de sa
mission. Devant l’horreur de ce crime sans précédent qui frappe
l’enseignement en son cœur, le bureau de l’Association Française
d’Études Américaines souhaite exprimer sa plus vive émotion, et
réaffirme avec Jean Zay que « les écoles doivent rester l’asile
inviolable où les querelles des hommes ne pénètrent pas ». Cet
attentat ne vise pas que l’éducation secondaire mais l’enseignement
dans son ensemble, car il cherche à détruire l’une de nos missions les
plus fondamentales, celle de former des esprits libres et d’en aiguiser
le sens critique. En tant qu’enseignants-chercheurs, nous exerçons cette
mission auprès de nos étudiant.e.s de premier cycle, mais également
dans le cadre de la formation de nos futur.e.s collègues des collèges et
lycées, auxquels nous sommes lié.e.s par un engagement et un destin
communs. Plus que jamais, nous tenons à leur exprimer toute notre
solidarité et à les assurer de tout notre soutien.
La sidération et l’effroi que suscite un tel acte rendent d’autant plus intolérable sa récupération indigne par le ministre de l’Éducation Nationale, qui, le 22 octobre sur Europe 1 et devant le Sénat, a prétendu que l’Université était infiltrée par « des courants islamo-gauchistes très puissants [qui] font des ravages » et qui, dans un entretien au JDD publié le 25 octobre 2020, réitère ces accusations sur fond d’ignorance accablante des théories qu’il cite : « Il y a un combat à mener contre une matrice intellectuelle venue des universités américaines et des thèses intersectionnelles qui veulent essentialiser les communautés et les identités, aux antipodes du modèle républicain qui, lui, postule l’égalité entre les êtres humains, indépendamment de leurs caractéristiques d’origine, de sexe, de religion. C’est le terreau d’une fragmentation des sociétés qui converge avec le modèle islamique. »
Cette ingérence du ministre de l’EN dans les débats théoriques et les enseignements est d’autant plus stupéfiante que les universitaires ont une ministre, de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche, dont le silence assourdissant de ces derniers jours est plus qu’inquiétant. On entend d’ailleurs dans les propos de M. Blanquer l’écho délibéré des propos d’Emmanuel Macron qui, d’après Le Monde du 11 juin 2020 avait estimé le monde universitaire « coupable» d’avoir « ethnicisé le débat social en pensant que c’était un bon filon » et accusait les universitaires d’avoir « coupé en deux la République. » Il s’agit donc là d’attaques organisées, du type que l’on attendrait de l’alt right américaine, ou d’un gouvernement d’extrême droite en France, mais certainement pas d’un gouvernement se réclamant d’un esprit républicain.
En tant qu’américanistes, nous souhaitons rappeler au ministre et au président de la République ce que signifie l’intersectionnalité, théorisée par Kimberlé Crenshaw. Il s’agit, aux antipodes de ce que prétendent l’un et l’autre, d’étudier les multiples rapports de domination (rapports de classe, de genre, effets du racisme systémique, etc.). C’est un outil essentiel pour mettre en lumière les discriminations multiples dans une société, y compris lorsqu’elle a pour devise « liberté, égalité, fraternité », la devise n’ayant aucune valeur performative et l’égalité postulée n’étant pas une réalité concrète. C’est parce que l’intersectionnalité vise précisément à déconstruire les identités, à les dé-essentialiser, afin de lutter concrètement contre toutes les inégalités qu’elle offusque Valeurs Actuelles, mais aussi tout gouvernement dont les politiques augmenterait lesdites inégalités.
Les américanistes de l’AFEA, qui ont vocation à étudier le monde américain dans son intégralité et sa complexité, ne se laisseront dicter ni leurs lectures, ni leurs paradigmes théoriques, ni leurs enseignements par quelque gouvernement que ce soit. Les propos visiblement concertés du président Macron et du ministre de l'EN mettent à mal la liberté constitutionnelle qui est celle des universitaires. Il semblerait que le gouvernement actuel s’imagine avoir déjà éliminé ces protections constitutionnelles au moment où il s’attaque, de fait, via la loi de programmation de la recherche (LPR) au statut des enseignants-chercheurs. N’ayant pu venir à bout de leur opposition quasi unanime à son projet, il choisit de les vilipender dans les médias, pratique poujadiste s’il en est.
On appréciera le cynisme d’un gouvernement se prétendant le chantre de la liberté d’expression, et qui, sur fond d’une tragédie qui nous a toutes et tous bouleversés – l’assassinat de Samuel Paty – essaie précisément de museler les universitaires et de faire d’eux des boucs émissaires. Le bureau de l’AFEA continuera de défendre la liberté des enseignants chercheurs américanistes, et au-delà, la liberté d’expression dans notre République, contre toutes les attaques, quelles qu’elles soient.
Agrégation anglais 2021 La BBC et le service public de l’audiovisuel 1922-1995 Post 34 : Revising British history 1950-1995
Agrégation anglais 2021 La BBC et le service public de l’audiovisuel
1922-1995 Post 34 : revising British history 1950-1995
The BBC responded in myriad ways as it developed : to government pressure, to elite priorities
and to popular demand. The link with the general social and political history
is not direct and immediate (BBC programmes did not suddenly change the day
Margaret Thatcher was elected). Nevertheless, a feeling for the social and
political priorities of different groups in different decades is essential.
This means revising your British history of the Twentieth century.
For the period 1950- 1995, you could do worse than watch
these three half-hour videos, which I actually made for another completely
different class.
1950-1968 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxuFAd64vY0&feature=youtu.be
1968-1981 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpva_YfbmwM&feature=youtu.be
1981 onwards https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEJhMiBDWbE&feature=youtu.be
Sunday, November 01, 2020
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