• Photograph showing a page from a medieval manuscript.

The Persistence of Victorian Middle Class Fictions

by Albert Pionke The US has just emerged from a mid-term election cycle. In the UK, calls for a general election grow ever louder. Politicians, pundits, and pollsters alike cite the discontent of the middle class with, depending upon one’s ideological predilections,…

Diversity in British Cinema

Diversity in British Film and Television

The controversy over ‘all-white’ 2020 BAFTAs once again shows the importance of understanding that issues of diversity are at the forefront of debates film and television. But it’s not just a question of who is, and is not, in the…

Doing History in the Age of Downton Abbey

Julie Anne Taddeo As the most watched period drama in television history, Downton Abbey has met with popular success but not always critical acclaim. Historians in particular have criticized what they see as the series’ conservative politics and nostalgic view…

Shining the spotlight on British cinema’s female stars

Britain has long had a contradictory relationship to movie stardom, as two articles from the fan magazine Picturegoer, both by the same writer, both from 1943, eloquently demonstrate. In October, Lionel Collier had asked hopefully ‘are we making our own…