Context Flashcards
where and when was Alan Bennett born?
Leeds
1934
what was Alan Bennetts own experience of education like?
He was encouraged to go to a prestigious university and decided to go to Oxford, after applying to both Oxford and Cambridge, in order to follow a boy he had fallen in love with.
what kind of character does Bennett often write?
downtrodden and unfortunate
when was it first performed and how was it recieved?
In London may 2004
It recieved more than thirty major awards
what were schools like in the 1980’s ?
The national curriculum was introduced
The publication of league tables was introduced which acts as a league table for the school’s examination results
what were Universities like in the 1980’s?
Greater exposure to market forces and massive spending cuts.
Education was considered of less value than the production of leaders and buisness and industry.
State schools were underrepresented
What was politics like in the 1980’s?
Tony Blair and Charles Clarke.
Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister in 1979.
In 1980 funding for university was slashed and many academics were asked to resign.
Free milk was eliminated as part of budget cuts.
what were attitudes to sexuality in the 1980’s
In the 1980’s Bennett describes that there was a toughening of attitudes and rise in Homophobia due to a vast amount of misinformation and panic generated by the first cases of aids. In 1988 the government introduced a legislation that prohibited any teaching which may promote homosexuality.
What was Northern England like in the 1980’s?
Bennett often uses Northern England as the setting in plays or in characters accents. Northern accents have been in the past considered common or more working class than other southern accents.
What theatrical and dramatic techniques are used in the play?
The history boys contains elegant speech and some aspects of naturalistic and realistic drama were the audience is expected to care about the lives of the characters, there are also times were the characters use natural and everyday vocab.
Metatheatrical
Literally, beyond theatre; plays or theatrical acts that are self-consciously theatrical, that refer to the art of the theatre and call attention to their own theatricality
Anachronistic
Belonging to a period other than that being portrayed
Intertextuality
The relationship between texts, especially literary ones.
Zeitgeist
The defining spirit or mood of a period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time
Farce
A comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterisation and ludicrously improbable situations.
