Introduction by Hannah Arendt on Benjamin's life. Puts him into perspective alongside Kafka and Baudillaire and society at the time of Benjamin's life. Book contains short, readable essays, including The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, in which the "Angel of History" (Assignment 4 - critical review) is put into perspective. I enjoyed the task of the translator, too, with it's relationship with photography.
Debord, G. (1970) The society of the spectacle. Detroit, USA: Black and red.
Suggested further reading for Assignment 6 was a quote from my tutor from Guy Debord’s “The society of the spectacle.”. This was something which had been on my list of books to read as it is often referred to and it was surprisingly readable.
“A by-product of the circulation of commodities, tourism, human circulation considered as consumption, is basically reduced to the leisure of going to see what has become banal. The economic organization of the frequentation of different places visits is already in itself the guarantee of their equivalence. The same modernization which has removed time from travel has also removed from it the reality of space.” Debord (1970:92)
Debord cites tourism in the spectacle as a way of passing time. The tourism industry sells commodities and spectacle. At the attraction, tourists take on a different ideological role for a short time and interpret (give meaning to) the spectacle of the attraction which remains hidden and mystical from the tourists. If tourists lived in the area, they would be part of a commodity. The tourist becomes part of the unpaid labour force which contributes to capitalism. E.g. the tourist may pay a car parking charge. The profits from this contribute to changing a field into a carpark with hard standing and later lighting and toilet blocks. Tourists are a collective – they usually come from capitalist societies and need the local employed workforce to contribute to making their experience of the banal space more interesting. So we must continue to market the banal so that tourists return which maintains jobs in the local economy.
This is probably more relevant to the landscape I used for Assignment 5 within Sherwood Forest, with its proximity to Centre Parks – a base for the tourists to stay. It tends to be locals passing through Assignment 6’s landscape. As a way of challenging the tourism spectacle, it would be possible to study Edwinstowe, the village next to the Major Oak, looking behind the scenes; Alec Soth’s series Niagra or James Morris -A Landscape of Wales. I experimented unsuccessfully with this sort of project for Assignment 2. Reflecting back over my recent learning, I would approach this differently now that I understand the concept and theory behind it.
So just a few notes about Debord’s “Society of the spectacle” to complete my understanding of the book:
Divided into 9 chapters, the book contains 221 theses, based on Marxist ideas, comparable to Marxist ideas on the economy. The first chapter explains the spectacle. Use of the wording describing what the spectacle is and is not entices the reader into the book. E.g. Thesis 4: “The spectacle is not a collection of images but a social relation among people mediated by images.” Debord (1970:9) “The spectacle” is a critical look at image saturated consumerism and culture. In today’s terms this is equivalent with social media, tourism, advertising, TV, film and celebrity lifestyle. Debord sees mass media as a public service which is used to distract and pacify the masses. In today’s world of consumerism, adverts pop up on computers relevant to what people “search” for, making some yearn for their next acquisition. In this way people work to live. The spectacle is there as a distraction and alters the way people interact with each other. Media reduces the world. E.g. it is possible to have a conversation with a group of people one hardly knows in a “chat” over the internet without phoning them. This is very different from arranging to see one person and spending quality time with them. So there is an illusion of connectivity.
The spectacle on the surface appears to be a good thing, but is it? (False consciousness). Concentrated spectacle – use of force (totalitarianism) Diffuse spectacle (wealthy democracies placate masses because individuals are empowered by consumer choice. Ephemeral pleasure in acquiring new commodity gives rise to happiness for a short time.)
Reference
Debord, G. (1970) The society of the spectacle. Detroit: Black and red. Thesis 168
Bibliography
Morgan, T and Purje, L. (2016) An illustrated guide to Guy Debord’s “The society of the spectacle” Hyperallergic ([online] Available from: http://hyperallergic.com/313435/an-illustrated-guide-to-guy-debords-the-society-of-the-spectacle/ [last accessed 12/08/2016]
Skoll, G. (2014) How can we know about tourism? Academia.edu. [online] Available from: https://www.academia.edu/6018723/How_can_We_Know_About_Tourism [last accessed 12/08/2016]
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Definition of "The gaze"
“A particular way of looking at, perceiving and
understanding the world. It was brought into currency by writers on cinema,
concerned to analyze the response of the audience as voyeurs of the action on
the screen. The voyeuristic gaze is used to describe the way in which men often
look at women, as well as the way in which Western tourists look at the
non-Western world. More recently, discussions have focused on the implication
of a “female gaze”.” (Wells, 2009:347)
The male gaze
Lynda Nead as cited by Wells, notes that in Albrecht
Durer’s 1525 drawing of a “Draughtsman drawing a nude”, the image is framed so
that the viewer responds as if in a cinema and which photographers use. The
female is positioned as the sexual object by the male. This is representative
of the male gaze.
John Berger, in Ways of Seeing, explains that “women
are depicted in a quite different way from men - not because the feminine is
different from the masculine - but because the ’ideal" spectator is always
assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him.”
(Berger,1972:64)
The male gaze is used in cinema, TV and advertising to
represent the sexualized way in which men objectify women. Women’s feelings and
desires are less important. In 1975 Laura Mulvey, a feminist developed the
concept, based on Freud’s work arguing that “traditional Hollywood films respond to a deep-seated drive
known as “scopophilia”: the sexual pleasure involved in looking.” (Loreck 2016)
Scopophilia is a voyeuristic pleasure. The male gaze creates a power imbalance,
in which the female form becomes a spectacle. Adopted in popular films with
characters such as Catwoman in the Dark Knight Rises (2012), Mykaela in
Transformers (2007) etc. Voyeurism is common in photography because of the
nature of looking through a lens or frame at an object.
Objectification of women
is used in advertisements and displays passive body language and Photoshop to
women’s bodies. Studies completed in 1970’s showed women were depicted in
caring roles whilst men were in active, controlling roles. Women continue to be
commodified and the object of the male gaze.
Female
Gaze
In cinema and films the
female gaze tends to be a response to identifying with men’s sensitive sides.
Characters are given more depth and have stereotypical lean muscled bodies.
Focuses on female pleasure. In photography, it is female photographers who are
redefining the way women are portrayed, e.g. using ordinary women instead of
super models, feminists represent women differently.
Lacanian
gaze
Gillian
Rose demonstrates flaws with the male gaze and feels that the Lacanian Gaze is
a more accurate description as it deals with how the subject is viewed rather
than how the subject is seen. People are more culturally aware, reading
existing and visible signs which make up the image. Possibly this is similar to
Berger’s idea of how we look at mediaeval pictures which is different to how
they were viewed at the time of painting? The gaze is based on Freuds’ idea of
screens (like memory screens). Bryson suggests that it reminds us of our own
mortality. The Lacanian gaze also lasts longer than the image. “You never look at me from the place which I see you” (Lacan as cited by Rose, 2001:120)
Tourist gaze
Around the time of the grand tours, tourists looked at
everything under the umbrella of science and with a sense of beauty and
awe. With mass tourism in the 19th
and 20th centuries, the tourist gaze changed. Michael Foucault’s work on gaze examined
surveillance by one prison guard over many prisoners. Within the health system,
Foucault used doctors and patients to explain his ideas of gaze; adapted by
Urry into the tourist gaze. The tour guide becomes the person who tells the
tourist what to look at and how to interpret it (like the doctor), and the
tourist sees a subject or people which are different from the norm (more
exotic). Tourists, the places they are visiting and the commodities they may
purchase makes the tourist a spectacle (as in Guy Debord’s spectacle). The
tourist gaze is earnest, and paradoxically tourists transform and are
transformed by their gaze.
Knudsen et al (2008) describe the main characteristics
of tourist activity as viewing landscapes and experiences which are different
from their norm; tourism being a “signposted experience” which involves
“spectaclisation of place” (Knudsen et al 2008:3), interactions take place
with people and culture and tourism fuse together, commodifying it as a
spectacle. Lisle (2004) as cited by Knudsen et al (2008) indicates that
tourists are enticed to the spectacle, whether it be natural, pastoral,
heritage, or fantasy. Lisle also studied dark tourism in areas of violent,
conflict and disaster.
Tourist landscapes are heterotopic, (a real space which exists alongside another space at the
same time where norms of behavior become suspended) which fit with the
idea of societal institutions and commonality. For example, when visiting a
landscape associated with Robin Hood, tourists from different countries have
heard of the legend of Robin Hood. Each tourist has a different interaction
with the landscape because their knowledge is different. The tourists walking
towards the signpost (noticeboard) of Friar Tuck may have little prior
knowledge of the area, and may have inadvertently walked past it without realizing
it. For those who walk from the board, they already have some knowledge,
although this knowledge may challenge pre-conceived ideas and the local tourist
may have different knowledge to the overseas visitor because they live or work
in the area.
The tourist gaze can be 2D or 3D. With a 2D gaze, the
viewer concentrates on shape, colour and detail as if viewed through a lens. 3D
introduces movement such as in Schivelbusch’s mobility of vision where the
landscape loses the foreground and becomes framed from the window they are
looking out of. The tourist glances at sights which are interconnected. This idea
can be transferred to the tourists using the bridleway, rushing past on their mountain
bikes or looking down from their horses.
References
Berger,
J. (1972) Ways of seeing. Available from: http://waysofseeingwaysofseeing.com/ways-of-seeing-john-berger-5.7.pdf [last accessed
15/08/2016]
Knudson,
D., Metro Roland., M, Soper., A. Greer, C. (2008) Landscape, tourism and meaning. Burlington USA: Ashgate.
Loreck,
J. (2016) Explainer: What does the male gaze mean, and what about a “female
gaze”? The conversation [online]
Available from: http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-the-male-gaze-mean-and-what-about-a-female-gaze-52486 [last accessed 15/08/16]
Rose,
G. (2001) Visual methodologies London: Sage Publications
Wells,
L. (2009) Photography a critical introduction. Abingdon: Routledge.
Bibliography
Urry,
J. (2001) Globalising the tourist gaze. Published
by Department of sociology, Lancaster University, Lancaster. LA1 4YN. UK.
[online] Available from: http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/resources/sociology-online-papers/papers/urry-globalising-the-tourist-gaze.pdf [last accessed
16/08/2016]
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Michael Foucault: Heterotopic spaces
“the
space… is not an innovation; space itself has a history in Western experience, and it is not possible to disregard the fatal intersection of time with space...
in the Middle Ages there was a hierarchic ensemble of places: sacred places and
profane places: protected places and open, exposed places: urban places and
rural places (all these concern the real life of men). In cosmological theory,
there were the super celestial places as opposed to the celestial, and the
celestial place was in its turn opposed to the terrestrial place. There were
places where things had been put because they had been violently displaced, and
then on the contrary places where things found their natural ground and
stability. It was this complete hierarchy, this opposition, this intersection
of places that constituted what could very roughly be called medieval space:
the space of emplacement.” (Foucault, 1967:1)
Galileo
was the first scientist to define spaces as “infinitely open”. (Foucault, 1967:1)
Galileo advocated that a place was only a point in its movement between 2
points and stability was a slowed down movement.
By
1967, spaces were an extension of themselves which replaced emplacement, known
as sites. These are defined by “relations of proximity between points or
elements”, (Foucault, 1967:2)
Foucault
saw sites as related to each other in series, trees or grids. Different factors
affected the sites such as noise, data, memory so he came up with
classifications for the sites.
There
are oppositions in the spaces such as personal/private space, family/social
space, cultural/useful space, work/leisure which are still sacred. Bachelard
implies that our space has quality and may be fantastic. These refer to
internal space such as dreams and passions. Foucault deals with external space
which he calls heterogenous -space which is outside us but affects us by
delineating sites and cannot be superimposed on. E.g. a train is a means of
transport which takes us from one point to another but there is a different relationship
inside the train.
Focault
was interested in sites which contradict other sites which are in relation to
all other sites and “suspect, neutralize, or invent the set of relations that
they happen to designate, mirror, or reflect.” (Foucault, 1967:3)
Foucault
divided these into utopias and heterotopias. A Utopia is a site with no real
place. It is the mirror to heterotopia. Society is perfect. These places may
exist.
“In the mirror, I see myself there where I am not, in an unreal, virtual
space that opens up behind the surface; I am over there, there where I am not,
a sort of shadow that gives my own visibility to myself, that enables me to see
myself there where I am absent: such is the utopia of the mirror. But it is
also a heterotopia in so far as the mirror does exist in reality, where it
exerts a sort of counteraction on the position that I occupy. From the
standpoint of the mirror I discover my absence from the place where I am since
I see myself over there. Starting from this gaze that is, as it were, directed
toward me, from the ground of this virtual space that is on the other side of
the glass, I come back toward myself; I begin again to direct my eyes toward
myself and to reconstitute myself there where I am. The mirror functions as a
heterotopia in this respect: it makes this place that I occupy at the moment
when I look at myself in the glass at once absolutely real, connected with all
the space that surrounds it, and absolutely unreal, since in order to be perceived it has to pass through this virtual point which is over there”. (Foucault, 1967:4)
First principle
Not
universal and affects all of society. Divided into two: primitive society – crisis heterotopia: “privileged
or sacred or forbidden places, reserved for individuals who are, in relation to
society and to the human environment in which they live, in a state of crisis:
adolescents, menstruating women, pregnant women, the elderly, etc.” Foucault
noted that the old values such as 19th century boarding schools,
honeymoon trips etc. National Service were disappearing and being replaced by heterotopias
of deviation which includes people with deviant behavior such as care homes,
psychiatric homes, prisons. (Benefit street?)
Second principle
The
function of an existing heterotopia can be changed by a society. E.g. the cemetery.
Western cultural space connected with all the sites of the residential place
because people have relatives in the cemetery. Space moved from next to the church
in the sacred heart of the village to a lonely cemetery on the outskirts of
town because people became frightened of illness brought by the dead. Was
hierarchical, now it is based on availability.
Third principle
Can
juxtapose several incompatible sites or spaces into a real space – e.g. the
cinema, gardens, zoos
Fourth principle
Heterotopias are linked to slices in time—e.g.
cemetery – visit is because of loss of life, life changes because of someone’s
disappearance from another’s life, or when people have a break from the norm of
traditional time- e.g. work.
Fifth Principle
Heterotopias
of indefinitely accumulating time e.g. museums and libraries collecting and
housing everything. Transitory time- temporal e.g. festivals, fairgrounds
visiting the town, vacation villages. Here
the 2 heterotopias come together – vacation villages abolish time but time is
rediscovered (timelessness?)
Fifth principle
Heterotopias
open and close which isolates and makes them accessible. Not freely accessible
like a public. Entry is compulsory e.g. prison or one submits to rites and makes
gestures e.g. religion e.g. a Turkish bath
Sixth principle
Heterotopias
are related to the remaining space. Heterotopia of compensation e.g. colonization.
Foucault uses the boat as an example of:
“a floating piece of space, a place
without a place, that exists by itself, that is closed in on itself and at the
same time is given over to the infinity of the sea and that, from port to port,
from tack to tack, from brothel to brothel, it goes as far as the colonies in
search of the most precious treasures they conceal in their gardens, you will
understand why the boat has not only been for our civilization, from the
sixteenth century until the present, the great instrument of economic development.. but has been simultaneously the greatest reserve of the imagination. The ship is the heterotopia par excellence. In civilizations
without boats, dreams dry up, espionage takes the place of adventure, and the
police take the place of pirates.” (Foucault, 1967:9)
Reference
Foucault,
M. (1967) Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias. Available from:
Architecture /Mouvement/ Continuité October, 1984; (“Des Espace Autres,” March
1967 Translated from the French by Jay Miskowiec) Available from: http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/foucault1.pdf
[last accessed 17/09/2016]
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“Places are chosen to be gazed upon because there is an
anticipation especially through the day dreaming and fantasy of intense
pleasures, either on a different scale or involving different senses from those
customarily encountered. Such anticipation is constructed and sustained through
a variety of non-tourist practices such as film, TV, literature, magazines, records
and videos which construct and reinforce the gaze.” (Urry: 2011:4)
Reference
Urry, J and Larson, J. (2011) The Tourist gaze
3.0. 3rd Edition. London: Sage-----------------------------------------------
“For Urry, the media also play a crucial role in creating the tourist gaze. Media structure, what the tourist chooses to visit and how the tourist looks at a particular site. What McCannell calls the marker, whether on location - a sign describing what the visitor is seeing – or off location – a photo or description in a guidebook – are essential to defining the tourist’s landscape. These markers can make the most unspectacular locations worth seeing. Guidebooks equate the value of seeing an empty field, where an especially bloody battle took place, with the value of seeing a famous painting. The tendency to aesthetically equate all aspects of the environment is one important way the tourist gaze is postmodern. Something similar happens when the tourist decides to take a photograph". (Fotsch, 2010)
Reference
Fotsch, M.
(2010) Confronting the tourist vision.
Politics and Culture. 2003 (1)
[online] Available from: https://politicsandculture.org/2010/08/10/confronting-the-tourist-vision-2/ [last accessed 28/07/2016].
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Jacques Lacan
“Certain moments of seeing and particular visualities
are central to how subjectivities and sexualities are formed.” (builds on Freud’s idea of scopophilia –
pleasure of looking- which all children are born with) (Rose, 2001:100)
Reference
Rose,
G. (2001) Visual methodologies London: Sage Publications
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“The landscape… seems more a set of conditions, a
location where things and events might transpire rather than a given thing or
event in itself; an arena or circumstance within which an open set of
possibilities might be induced to play themselves out.” (Baltz, 1985)
Reference
Orchard, C. (2014). Portraits of Vulnerable Ghosts:
Contemporary Landscape Photography in Context. Landscapes: The Journal of the
International Centre for Landscape and Language, 6(1). Available from: http://ro.ecu.edu.au/landscapes/vol6/iss1/14
[last accessed 17/09/2016]
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Halewood, C. and
Hannam, K. (2001) Viking heritage tourism: authenticity and commodification. Annals of Tourism and research. 28 (3),
pp. 565-580 [online] Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222570066_Viking_heritage_tourism_Authenticity_and_Commodification
[last accessed 28/07/2016].
- “Viking representation in Scandinavia are people who were “well known as pirates [abroad] but at home lived in a well ordered society.” (Vestfold Kommune Tourism 1998). Viking tourism promotes this image but visitors inspired by pre-existing blood thirsty image. (Halewood and Hannam, 2001:566)
- “Landscapes of nostalgia” – promotes Hewison’s idea that heritage tourism “offers a degree of security and stability” (1999) ((Halewood and Hannam, 2001:567)
- McCannell (1992) “staged authenticity” referring to sites as if they are authentic “The rhetoric of tourism is full of manifestations of the importance of the authenticity of the relationships between tourists and what they see: this is a typical native house; this is the very place the leader fell; this is the actual pen used to sign the law; this is the original manuscript; this is an authentic Tlingit fish club; this is a real piece of the true Crown of Thorns (1976:14; emphasis in the original). (Halewood and Hannam, 2001)
- Hughes, “tourists… do not contrast the staging of their authenticity … against direct experience of the original, but rather with a mental image of that original which has already been “corrupted” by mediating influences (1995:782–783).” ((Halewood and Hannam, 2001:567)
- “staging leads to the development of a distinct tourism space separate from the immediate locality and this separation prevents any experience of authenticity (MacCannell 1992).” (Halewood and Hannam, 2001:567)
- “Alternative tourism, on the other hand, is seen as journeys into “uncharted territory beyond the limits of the ‘tourist space’, to have ‘authentic’ experiences” (Cohen 1995:13)” (Halewood and Hannam, 2001:567).
- “Watson and Kopachevsky (1994)…suggest that the mystery of commodification lies in the way in which it is able to hide the very thing that determines its value, namely labor.” (Halewood and Hannam, 2001:567) Souvenirs, marketing strategy, mass production, become inauthentic
- “1893, the Viking, sailed to the Chicago World Fair, replicating Leif Erikson’s discovery of Vinland (Newfoundland) a millennium ago. Viking themed events… held in the Shetland Isles since the beginning of this century and societies of re-enactors have been staging Viking heritage events elsewhere in the United Kingdom since the 50s.” (Halewood and Hannam, 2001:(678)
My notes…I
disagree… Up Helly Aa – 1st Viking ship burnt at a festival in 1889
previous to this date.
My notes…Museum
of Vestfold, church like, painted white, viewing platforms (? On a parallel
with an art gallery)
- First costumed Vikings from the UK visited Moesgard in Denmark to put on fighting display.
- Traders at markets – commercial, profit, second job, proceeds towards living costs
- “The Viking market can be seen as an essentially heterotopic space which defies exact definition, whereas the other types of Viking heritage tourism approximate to what Edensor calls “enclavic space” (1998:47), space which is becoming more regulated, functional, and bounded so that it facilitates maximum consumption and transit.” (Halewood and Hannam, 2001:578)
----------------------------------------------------------------
Edensor, T.
(2001) Performing tourism, staging
tourism (Re)producing tourist space and practice. Tourist studies. 1 (1),
pp.59-81 [online] Available from: http://www.nyu.edu/classes/bkg/tourist/a019896.pdf
[last accessed 28/07/2016].
(My notes) Mediated spaces – e.g Sherwood
Forest relates to films such as “Robin Hood”. Tourists should know what they
look like through media, but may not be filmed in that location.
“Enclavic tourist space is akin to Sibley’s
‘purified’ spaces, which are strongly circumscribed and framed, wherein
conformity to rules and adherence to centralized regulation hold sway (1988:
412), or may be typified as ‘single-purpose spaces’. Carefully planned and
managed to provide specific standards of cleanliness, service, décor and
‘ambience’, the continual upkeep of enclavic spaces is crucial to minimize
underlying ambiguity and contradiction. Tourists are subject to a ‘soft control’
(Ritzer and Liska, 1997: 106) – guards, guides and CCTV cameras that monitor
their behaviour – whereas in order to maintain a clear spatial boundary, local
workers are excluded. Shielded from potentially offensive sights, sounds and
smells, these ‘environmental bubbles’ provide in-house recreational facilities,
including displays of local culture.” (Edensor, 2001:63)
“Heterogeneous tourist space, by contrast, is
‘weakly classified’, with blurred boundaries, and is a multi-purpose space in
which a wide range of activities and people co-exist. Tourist facilities
coincide with businesses, public and private institutions and domestic housing,
and tourists mingle with locals, including touts. Generally, tourism has often
emerged in an unplanned and contingent process and an unplanned bricolage of
structures and designs provides a contrasting aesthetic context. In some ways,
heterogeneous tourist spaces provide stages where transitional identities may
be performed alongside the everyday enactions of residents, passers-by and
workers.” (Edensor, 2001:64)
“Debord (1987), has maintained that
contemporary Western society is a ‘society of the spectacle’. It is, to
paraphrase Baudrillard (1981), a society in which signs, disembedded from their
cultural context, detached from their referents, float freely, circulating
everywhere to be depthlessly consumed” (Edensor, 2001:68)
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Robin Hood – fact or fiction?
James Holt researched Robert Hoods in mediaeval court documents and records, coming up with 8 outlaws in the 12th and 13th century; the first being Robert Hode from Yorkshire in about 1225. In 1261, William, son of Robert le Fevre had his name changed by the court to Robert Hood. Academics record the name of Robe Hod, Robin Hod etc. as a criminal nickname.
- In 1377, the Scotichronicon included a song (chant) about Robin Hood and Little John.
- The Black Death (1340’s) led to social changes because of the number of deaths. From this point onwards, the legend of Robin Hood possibly began to take shape. The Robin Hood legend is based on the need for a 14th and 15th century emphasis on being English and national identity. England was warring with France and Scotland. The Hundred Years War and War of the Roses left England unsettled.
- The first recorded literary piece mentioning Robin Hood is by William Langland in an allegorical narrative poem entitled Piers Plowman in the late 1370’s.
- May Games (Whitsun and Pentecost Games) formed an important part of the calendar. Plays were sponsored by the church and landowners (noblemen) and enjoyed by a cross section of society, providing an opportunity for merchants, middle class, working class and petty thieves to get together. Morris dancing (from 1448 onwards) started to include songs of Robin Hood. The earliest entertainment sketch found is on a manuscript dating from 1475.
- In the Tudor period religion changed several times. The legend of Robin Hood changed depending on which religion was in favour.
- The printing press was developed in the 16th century and “A lytell geste of Robin Hood” was printed. Spoken word from the manuscripts became accessible once it was written down. This work was a compilation of all the works so far.
- Black cites Marxist Historian Rodney Hilton (1958) as arguing that the “Robin Hood legend [is a] result of anti-authoritarian sentiments and the inherent conflict and violence present in the late mediaeval society” (Black, 2012:12) Hilton also linked the legend to the Peasant’s Revolt of 1387. However, this was disputed by James Holt who suggested that the Robin Hood ballads may have been written by the gentry signifying “resistance against corruption rather than a peasant discontented by their landlord” (Black, 2012:13).
- Robin Hood seems to sit in central to Northern England, as ballads belong in Northern England and Peasant Revolts happened in the south. Northern England was the place for baronial and border warfare. The underlying themes in the country were discontent with the forest laws and sheriffs. Robin Hood changes from class to class as a response to society’s needs.
- The earliest ballad was Robin Hood and the monk (not Friar Tuck), chronicled in a manuscript dated 1465. This could have been written down 100 years earlier. This contained legal undertones and outlawry with which 14th century middle class folk would be familiar. Up until 1329, a freeholder could have killed Robin Hood. After 1461, outlaws had to be handed over to justices of the peace rather than sheriffs.
- Anthony Mundy (16th Century) theatre plays.
- William Stukeley (18th century) added a false family tree for Robin Hood.
- Joseph Ritson (1795) Robin Hood: A Collection of all the ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads, now extant, relative to that celebrated English Outlaw: To which are prefixed Historical Anecdotes of His Life. Contains the first academic discussion on Robin Hood.
- Thomas Love Peacock (1822) Maid Marian
- Sir Walter Scott (1819) Ivanhoe. Hero Robin of Loxley appears in 10 out of 44 chapters. Based character of Robin Hood on an Anglo Saxon freedom fighter, possibly resembling Hereward the Wake (1035-1072), an Anglo Saxon resistance leader. Walter Scott hid the Wardour Manuscript within the book to make the readers believe it was an accurate description of the middle ages. From this publication, 4 theatre productions were produced detailing different parts of the book. The book was translated and sold in France, Germany, Spain and Austria. French Writer Augustin Thierry was convinced of the reality, justified by English place name such as Robin Hood’s Bay.
- Henry Walter (1828) History of England. “The 1190’s were a period that “deserves notice” because it proves that “the Saxon English” still felt themselves to be a distinct people from the descendants of their Norman Conqueror.” (Basedo, 2016:4)
- Washington Irving (1835) Robin Hood and Sherwood Forest. American writer. Travelogue containing his journeys through Sherwood Forest in pursuit of the legend of Robin Hood.
- Pierce Egan the younger (1838-40) Robin Hood and Little John
- John Mathew Gutch (1847) A lytell Geste of Robin Hood published in 2 volumes, building on previous works. Depicted an Anglo Saxon bow and Arrow as used by Robin Hood drawn by Frederick W Fairholt. Provides new “evidence” of Robin Hood.
- By 1859 Robin Hood had changed from a yeoman to an Anglo Saxon yeoman (freeholder)
- Alexandre Dumas (1872) Robin Hood prince of thieves
- Francis James Child (1882-98) 5 volumes of Ballads. Did not believe Robin Hood was an Anglo Saxon.
- Edward Fithian (1900) Life of Robin Hood. Robin Hood was a patriot despite his outlaw status. He acknowledges that Walter Scott represented him in this way.
- Errol Flynn (1938) Adventures of Robin Hood
Within Assignment 6, I read the work of Washington Irving, Sir Walter Scott and some of Child's ballads, all available online as the full book as the copyright has expired. It seems that throughout time, writers, chroniclers and playwrights have been drawn to the history and legend of Robin Hood because “he” is adaptable to fit the times and cultural needs of the people.
References
Basdeo, S. (2016) Ivanhoe’s afterlives: Walter Scott’s legacy upon 19th century Robin Hood scholarship and fiction in England and France. Academia.edu. Available from: https://www.academia.edu/25924634/_Ivanhoe_s_Afterlives_Walter_Scott_s_Legacy_upon_Nineteenth-Century_Robin_Hood_Scholarship_and_Fiction_in_England_and_France [last accessed 13/08/2016]
Black, T. (2012) Extralegal and English; the Robin Hood Legend and increasing national identity in the middling sorts of late mediaeval England. Available at: http://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/ir/bitstream/1840.16/7673/1/etd.pdf [last accessed 13/08/2016]
Bibliography
Knight, S. (2003)Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography. [online] Available from: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dPtpkU1WSbcC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=1370+piers+plowman+robin+hood&source=bl&ots=z48GYcjoEk&sig=nlPKx42sSMp91HRZMoAwk64vl54&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiwtZiHg8HOAhUoL8AKHRiDCkQQ6AEIJjAC#v=onepage&q=1370%20piers%20plowman%20robin%20hood&f=false [last accessed 12/08/2016]
Knight, S. and Olghren, T. (1997) Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar. University of Rochester [online] Available from: http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/robin-hood-and-the-curtal-friar-introduction
Johnson, V. (n.d.) Collection Highlight: Ritson. Robin Hood a collection… River Campus Libraries. [online] Available from: http://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/4591 [last accessed 14/08/2016]
Dimbleby, D, (2005) A Picture of Britain, London. Tate Publishing.
This book was an easy to read history of landscape painting in Britain since the development of landscape as a subject. Being divided into areas made it easy to associate with the various different landscapes and how the painters developed their styles associated with each area. The paintings included within the book served as a reminder of British landscape painters with a history of why or how they had been influenced with what was happening historically and put it into context for me. The challenge for me is to use the inspirational pictures to take photographs in my own area of Britain.
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