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British Academy Lectures, 2015-16

Janet Carsten and Simon Frith (eds)

The content derives from the British Academy’s public lecture programme which presents specialist research in an accessible manner. The papers range in subject matter over archaeology, economics, ... More

The content derives from the British Academy’s public lecture programme which presents specialist research in an accessible manner. The papers range in subject matter over archaeology, economics, sociology, religion, literature and modern languages, demonstrating the depth and breadth of scholarship in the humanities and social sciences that the British Academy champions.Less

Cultures of Commemoration: War Memorials, Ancient and Modern

Polly Low, Graham Oliver, and P.J. Rhodes (eds)

This book offers a comparative approach to the study of the commemoration of war. It draws together a set of contributions that combine to produce a considered approach to the changes and ... More

This book offers a comparative approach to the study of the commemoration of war. It draws together a set of contributions that combine to produce a considered approach to the changes and continuities that marked the ways in which war, and in particular the war dead, were commemorated and remembered. Chapters explore the commemorative practices of Ancient Greece and Rome, and investigate how those practices have been reflected, adapted and abandoned in more recent Western cultures, from eighteenth-century France to twentieth-century Britain, Germany and the USA. The book concentrates on monuments set up by communities, from local communities to the state, but it also considers the role of ‘private’ memorials, since the interaction between private or more personalised monuments and the commemoration of the war dead by the community often lies at the heart of commemorative practices. It furthermore explores the relationship between memory and forgetting, in the context of the longer-term idea of cultural memory. Key questions addressed by the book include: What importance does such commemoration have for the cultures that continue to live with the legacies of the commemorative actions of the recent and distant past? How is the commemoration of the war dead of the past not only used but reused? The book demonstrates that our own understanding of the treatment of the war dead has absorbed and reinterpreted the treatments already developed by past societies.Less

The First World War: Literature, Culture, Modernity

Santanu Das and Kate McLoughlin (eds)

Literary and cultural-historical debate about the First World War has focused on whether the conflict inaugurated a new modernity (in Paul Fussell’s terms, a specifically ironic consciousness) or ... More

Literary and cultural-historical debate about the First World War has focused on whether the conflict inaugurated a new modernity (in Paul Fussell’s terms, a specifically ironic consciousness) or whether it revealed deep continuities, particularly in the area of memorialization. The debate can productively be widened by expanding the scope of critical attention to include, not only English trench poetry, but also the creative production of women, non-combatants, civilians, and writers and artists from Europe and the then British Empire. This enlarged canon, which in this book ranges from the British combatant poets Wilfred Owen and David Jones to the writers and nurses Mary Borden and Enid Bagnold, the civilian novelists H. G. Wells and Virginia Woolf, and the international authors Robert Service, Berta Lask, Claire Studer Goll, Ricarda Huch, Gertrud Kolmar, Anna Akhmatova and Rabindranath Tagore, enables us to rethink the very meanings of terms such as ‘modernity’ and ‘modernism’. Literature itself is illuminated through juxtaposition with film, photography and fine art. Three areas in particular reveal the ways in which literature, culture and the war coalesce in a putative modernity: the unfathomable, intensity and ‘cosmopolitanism’. These emerge via investigation of issues such as shellshock, sacrifice, death, aerial bombing, resistance, empire and race.Less

How the Past was Used: Historical cultures, c. 750-2000

Peter Lambert and Björn Weiler (eds)

This volume brings together anthropologists, historians and literary scholars in order to explore how societies represented and used the past. Case studies range from the seventh century to the ... More

This volume brings together anthropologists, historians and literary scholars in order to explore how societies represented and used the past. Case studies range from the seventh century to the twenty-first, and from Africa, America and Asia to Europe. All the means and media by which societies, groups and individuals engaged with the past and expressed their understanding of it are addressed, and contributions treat not only professional historians, but also clerics, poets, novelists, administrators, political activists, and journalists as well as the consumers of their works. The utility of the past proved almost as infinitely variable as the modes of its representation. It might be a matter of learning lessons from experience, or about the legitimacy of a cause or regime, or the reputation of an individual. Rival versions and interpretations reflected, but also helped to create and sustain divergent communities and world views. With so much at stake, manipulations, distortions and myths proliferated. But given also that evidence of past societies was fragmentary, fragile and fraught with difficulties for those who sought to make sense of it, imaginative leaps and creativity necessarily came into the equation. Paradoxically, the very idea that the past was indeed useful was generally bound up with an image of history as inherently truthful. But then notions of truth proved malleable, even within one society, culture or period. Concerned with what engagements with the past can reveal about the wider intellectual and cultural frameworks within which they took place, the book is of relevance to anyone interested in how societies, communities and individuals acted on their historical consciousness.Less

The Middle Ages in the Modern World: Twenty-first century perspectives

Bettina Bildhauer and Chris Jones (eds)

The Middle Ages continue to provide an important touchstone for the way the modern West presents itself and its relationship with the rest of the globe. This volume brings together leading scholars ... More

The Middle Ages continue to provide an important touchstone for the way the modern West presents itself and its relationship with the rest of the globe. This volume brings together leading scholars of literature and history, together with musicians, novelists, librarians and museum curators in order to present exciting, up-to-date perspectives on how and why the Middle Ages continue to matter in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Presented here, their essays represent a unique dialogue between scholars and practitioners of ‘medievalism’. Framed by an introductory essay on the broad history of the continuing evolution of the idea of ‘The Middle Ages’ from the fourteenth century to the present day, chapters deal with subjects as diverse as: the use of Old Norse sagas by Republican deniers of climate change; the way figures like the Irish hero Cú Chulainn and St Patrick were used to give legitimacy to political affiliations during the Ulster ‘Troubles’; the use of the Middle Ages in films by Pasolini and Tarantino; the adoption of the ‘Green Man’ motif in popular culture; Lady Gaga’s manipulation of medieval iconography in her music videos; the translation of medieval poetry from manuscript to digital media; and the problem of writing national history free from the ‘toxic medievalism’ of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.Less

Proceedings of the British Academy Volume 125, 2003 Lectures

P. J. Marshall (ed.)

This volume contains fifteen lectures in the humanities and social sciences, delivered at the British Academy in 2003.

Proceedings of the British Academy Volume 167, 2009 Lectures

Ron Johnston (ed.)

This volume contains sixteen chapters which contain the text of lectures delivered at the British Academy in 2008–10. From romantic love in sub-Saharan Africa to the British industrial revolution, ... More

This volume contains sixteen chapters which contain the text of lectures delivered at the British Academy in 2008–10. From romantic love in sub-Saharan Africa to the British industrial revolution, from John Donne to Arthur Miller, from surrealism to Chinese flower imagery, this book demonstrates unparalleled breadth and depth of scholarship.Less

Proceedings of the British Academy Volume 181, 2010-2011 Lectures

Ron Johnston (ed.)

This volume collects together lectures by distinguished scholars. One lecture examines medieval religious relics, focusing on what they actually comprised and asking how these paltry items came to be ... More

This volume collects together lectures by distinguished scholars. One lecture examines medieval religious relics, focusing on what they actually comprised and asking how these paltry items came to be so highly valued. Another lecture takes the authentic medieval Welsh literary corpus associated with Owain Glyndwr, consisting in the main of bardic eulogies rather than prophecies, and examines them in their historical context. A lecture on Alexander Pope asks what part Shaftesbury's polite wit, Mandeville's cynicism, and Augustan sentimentalism played in the poetry of England's greatest satirist. Another lecture focuses on the Romantic poets' fascination with the lens-made and projected images that the modern world has come to think of as the virtual image. A further lecture examines the choices made by young musicians in Renaissance Italy. The next lecture examines how the paradoxical doctrine of ‘the one and the multiple’ was translated into visual language in Chinese Buddhist art. In some cases, groups related to certain numbers bearing metaphorical significances; while in others, objects were simply replicated in large numbers to create a sense of awe. The final lecture explores the way the natural history of the Americas was exported to 16th-century northern European scientists and how they reacted intellectually and politically.Less

Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 117: 2001 Lectures

F.M.L. Thompson (ed.)

This book contains the texts of 17 lectures, delivered to the British Academy in 2001. Topics include Chinese Mountain Painting, prosperity and power in the age of Bede and Beowulf, Glyn Dwr, ... More

This book contains the texts of 17 lectures, delivered to the British Academy in 2001. Topics include Chinese Mountain Painting, prosperity and power in the age of Bede and Beowulf, Glyn Dwr, Shakespeare's sense of an exit, learning, liberty, poetry, social ethics, the House of Savoy during the Risorgimento, the disease of language and the language of disease, Gertrude Stein's differential syntax, Keith Douglas, Common Law's approach to property, Welfare-to-Work and genes.Less

Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 121, 2002 Lectures

P. J. Marshall (ed.)

This series features studies of the lives and works of some of Britain's foremost scholars. Volume 121 of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains twelve lectures delivered at the British ... More

This series features studies of the lives and works of some of Britain's foremost scholars. Volume 121 of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains twelve lectures delivered at the British Academy in 2002.Less

Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 131, 2004 Lectures

P. J. Marshall (ed.)

This volume contains sixteen lectures given to the National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences in 2004. The topical issues debated in this volume include the patenting of AIDS drugs, the ... More

This volume contains sixteen lectures given to the National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences in 2004. The topical issues debated in this volume include the patenting of AIDS drugs, the future pensions crisis (a lecture given by the Governor of the Bank of England), Britain's universities, and Pan-Islam. There are studies of Shakespeare, Pope, Montaigne, Robert Graves, and William Faulkner. And there are lectures on the Inquisition, empires in history, and the journey towards spiritual fulfillment.Less

Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 139, 2005 Lectures

P. J. Marshall (ed.)

Volume 139 of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains thirteen lectures in the humanities and social sciences delivered at the British Academy in 2005. Subject matter ranges from ... More

Volume 139 of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains thirteen lectures in the humanities and social sciences delivered at the British Academy in 2005. Subject matter ranges from archaeological perspectives on the essence of being human to discussions of the UK's Monetary Policy Committee, the role of judges, and Dame Marilyn Strathern on ‘Useful Knowledge’.Less

Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 151, 2006 Lectures

P. J. Marshall (ed.)

This series features distinguished works in the humanities and social sciences. This volume of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains fifteen lectures delivered at the British Academy in ... More

This series features distinguished works in the humanities and social sciences. This volume of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains fifteen lectures delivered at the British Academy in 2006. Subjects covered range from consideration of Einstein, to discussions of coercion and consent in Nazi Germany, and judicial independence.Less

Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 154, 2007 Lectures

Ron Johnston (ed.)

This volume of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains seventeen lectures delivered at the British Academy in 2007. Subject matter ranges from commemoration of the American Civil War, to an ... More

This volume of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains seventeen lectures delivered at the British Academy in 2007. Subject matter ranges from commemoration of the American Civil War, to an examination of our capacity as human beings to live in the world of imagination, and the opportunities and challenges that face cultural institutions in Britain today.Less

Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 162, 2008 Lectures

Ron Johnston (ed.)

This volume contains ten lectures in the humanities and social sciences delivered at the British Academy in 2008. The lectures cover topics ranging from an exploration of the relationship between ... More

This volume contains ten lectures in the humanities and social sciences delivered at the British Academy in 2008. The lectures cover topics ranging from an exploration of the relationship between reason and identity, to an examination of social integration as the world becomes a more diverse place, to a consideration of the works of four great literary figures: King Alfred, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, and W. H. Auden.Less

The Promotion of Knowledge: Lectures to Mark the Centenary of the British Academy 1902-2002

John Morrill (ed.)

To mark its centenary in 2002, the British Academy invited leading universities around the UK to host public lectures on the current state of and future prospects for a cross section of the ... More

To mark its centenary in 2002, the British Academy invited leading universities around the UK to host public lectures on the current state of and future prospects for a cross section of the disciplines that fall within the Academy's compass. The Academy proposed the discipline and the universities nominated their preferred speakers. Those selected were drawn from Britain, Europe and the USA, and they rose magnificently to the challenge, while interpreting it in a way specific to their discipline. The eight chapters (plus four commentaries) span the disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences, from the history of art to international relations and geography. These are reflections on the stability and instability of the ways in which we organize knowledge and on how far the academic community can and should be involved in the shaping of public policy.Less

Socialism, Sex, and the Culture of Aestheticism in Britain, 1880-1914

Ruth Livesey

This book brings to life the growth of the socialist movement among men and women artists and writers in late nineteenth-century Britain. For these campaigners, socialism was inseparable from a ... More

This book brings to life the growth of the socialist movement among men and women artists and writers in late nineteenth-century Britain. For these campaigners, socialism was inseparable from a desire for a new beauty of life; beauty that also, for many, required them to reject the sexual conventions of the Victorian era. From the early 1880s and well into the twentieth century, the efforts of these writers and activists existed in critical tension with other contemporary developments in literary culture. This book maps the ongoing dialogue between socialist writers like William Morris, decadent aesthetes such as Oscar Wilde and defining figures of early modernism including Virginia Woolf and Roger Fry. The book concludes that socialist writers developed a distinct political aesthetic in which the love of beauty was to act as a force for revolutionary change. The book draws on archival research and extensive study of socialist periodicals, together with readings of works by writers including Morris, Wilde, Schreiner, George Bernard Shaw, Isabella Ford, Carpenter, Alfred Orage, Woolf and Fry. The book uncovers the lasting influence of socialist writers of the 1880s on the emergence of British literary modernism and by tracing the lives of neglected writers and activists such as Clementina Black and Dollie Radford, it provides a vivid evocation of an era in which revolution seemed imminent and the arts were a vital route to that future.Less

Unity and Diversity in European Culture c.1800

Tim Blanning and Hagen Schulze (eds)

Two of the most popular, innovative and controversial fields of historical study are cultural history and the history of nationalism. This volume brings these two areas together by addressing a ... More

Two of the most popular, innovative and controversial fields of historical study are cultural history and the history of nationalism. This volume brings these two areas together by addressing a central concern of recent research on the cultural history of Europe: the transition from the cosmopolitan culture of the Enlightenment to the self-consciously national cultures of the nineteenth century. Eleven chapters cover the public sphere, music, the visual arts, political culture, literature, the role of the state and national languages. Among the topics discussed are the decline in the degree and importance of patronage by the churches and the nobility; the corresponding expansion in the role played by the anonymous public and the market; the decline of international languages in favour of national vernaculars; the importance of the ‘other’ in determining a sense of national identity; and the growing appreciation by the state of the significance of the ‘fine arts’ as being conducive to social harmony, economic prosperity and political stability.Less