Crime Important Context Flashcards
What is ‘Atonement’s’ plot shadowed by?
Atonement’s plot is shadowed by Western Europe’s violent twentieth-century history
What did the modernist era centre around? (ATONEMENT)
A search for meaning & truth
What was Wilde’s aim? (BORG)
Wilde’s aim was to capture the reality of capital punishment and contribute to the debate on penal reform.
What is ‘Atonement’ about?
Atonement is a novel about a writer and writing and these are subjects McEwan returns to regularly in his works, employing writers as characters and challenging the distinction between fiction and reality
How did Dorothy L. Sayers defend Christie? (TMORA)
“It is the reader’s job to suspect everybody.”
What was notable in 1920s England? (TMORA)
Marxism & capitalist greed - presented through Sheppard’s blackmail
What had been abolished? (BORG)
Although public executions had been abolished in 1868, private executions still took place.
What did Wilde do when he was released and sent to Dieppe? (BORG)
Wilde wrote two letters to the Daily Chronicle protesting about the brutalities of prison life, including the inhumane treatment of children in gaol.
What was Wilde found guilty of? (BORG)
‘Acts of gross indecency with other male persons’ and sentenced to two years’ hard labour.
What did critics think? (BORG)
The poem was praised for its social realism, but, as Wilde had feared, many critics felt the poem’s propagandist aims undermined its aesthetic achievements.
What collection is this part of? (PG)
A collection of rural poems Crabbe published in 1810 called The Borough.
When is the poem set? (MLD)
The Italian Renaissance (14th-16th century).
Who is the Duke? (MLD)
Alfonso II who ruled in Northern Italy in the late 1500s.
Who was Lucrezia? (MLD)
Lucrezia was a Medici – part of a family that was becoming one of the most powerful and wealthy in Europe at the time. She died under suspicious circumstances in 1561.
Who was Browning a fan of?
He was a big fan of the poet Shelley and asked for all of Shelley’s works for his thirteenth birthday.
