The New Elizabethan Age: Culture, Society and National Identity after World War II

Description

In the first half of the twentieth century, many writers and artists turnedto the art and received example of the Elizabethans as a means ofarticulating an emphatic (and anti-Victorian) modernity. By the middleof that century, this cultural neo-Elizabethanism had become absorbedwithin a broader mainstream discourse of national identity, heritage andcultural performance. Taking strength from the Coronation of a new, youngQueen named Elizabeth, the New Elizabethanism of the 1950s heralded anation that would now see its 'modern', televised monarch preside over animminently glorious and artistic age.This book provides the first in-depth investigation of New Elizabethanismand its legacy. With contributions from leading cultural practitioners andscholars, its essays explore New Elizabethanism as variously manifestin ballet and opera, the Coronation broadcast and festivities, nationalhistoriography and myth, the idea of the 'Young Elizabethan', celebrations ofair travel and new technologies, and the New Shakespeareanism of theatreand television. As these essays expose, New Elizabethanism was muchmore than a brief moment of optimistic hyperbole. Indeed, from moderndrama and film to the reinternment of Richard III, from the London Olympicsto the funeral of Margaret Thatcher, it continues to pervade contemporaryartistic expression, politics, and key moments of national pageantry. Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Acknowledgements Illustrations Contributors INTRODUCTION Irene Morra and Rob Gossedge I. ORIGINS AND LEGACIES 1. New Elizabethanism: Origins, Legacies and the Theatre of Nation Irene Morra II. A FAMILY OF NATIONS 2. The ‘New’ Elizabeth and Scotland: The Royal Style and the British Constitution Kelly De Luca 3. Wales and the Crown: Coronation, Investiture and Jubilee, 1953–2012 Rob Gossedge 4. The Elective Affinity of the New Elizabethan Nation Arthur Aughey III. CULTURAL MEMORY 5. The Unending Charity of Cultural Memory Paul Stevens 6. Dreaming the Commonwealth: Arthurian Myth and Byzantine History Rob Gossedge 7. Postwar Revival: Elizabethan Medievalism at Midcentury Ayla Lepine IV. ELIZABETHANS YOUNG AND NEW 8. The Arts Council and the Young Elizabethans Tony Coult 9. Young Elizabethans, Young Readers and an Incomplete Vision Helen Phillips 10. The New Elizabethan Soundtrack Stephen Banfield 11. From Brabazons to Quatermass: New Elizabethans in Air and Space Tony Coult 12. English Ballet: A National Art for the New Elizabethan Moment Melanie Bigold V. SHAKESPEARE, SPECTACLE AND SOCIETY 13. ‘A Profound Commentary on Kingship’: The Monarchy and Shakespeare’s Histories on Television, 1957–65 John Wyver 14. A Case Study: The Future of Big Brum Theatre-in-Education Company Edward Bond 15. ‘Not a History Workshop Vision’: Frank Cottrell Boyce on the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games Scott Anthony 16. History Play: People, Pageant and the New Shakespearean Age Irene Morra AFTERWORD Edward Bond Index Plates