Contemporary British Fiction.Cool Britannia and After: British

Literature, Culture, and Society from the 1990s to the Present

Session Two

Agenda

• A Tour of the 1990s:– Jay Roach, Austin Powers: International Man

of Mystery (1997)– Britpop– Britart– Heritage films– Foreign and domestic politics– What people remember

A Tour of the 1990s

• Jay Roach, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)

A Tour of the 1990s: Britpop

BBC, ”Cool Britannia”

• Growing up in the 90s was fantastic, it seemed anything was possible, Britain was cool again, we had our own music, our own art, our own identity. Who'd have thought a few years down the line there would be debate on whether Britain even had an identity? In the 90s we did, and it was cool, working class kids were leaving school with optimism, the world seemed open to them, music was good, life was good, for once their seemed to be a government in charge that was making things positive. How did it all go wrong?Eddie Tyrell, Liverpool

A Tour of the 1990s: Politics

• Tony Blair• 1994: Labour elects

Blair• 1995: dumps Clause

Four: New Labour• 1997: Landslide

victory

A Tour of the 1990s: Britpop

• Oasis, ”Supersonic”: video and lyrics

• Blur, ”Girls and Boys”: video and lyrics

• Pulp, ”Common People”: video and lyrics

• The Spice Girls, ”Wannabe”: video and lyrics

A Tour of the 1990s: Britart

• Young British Artists

• Damien Hirst

• Tracey Emin

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living

(1991)

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living

(1991)

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living

(1991)

Mother and Child Divided (1993)

Mother and Child Divided (1993)

Mother and Child Divided (1993)

Mother and Child Divided (1993)

Tracey Emin, My Bed

Tracey Emin, My Bed

Tracey Emin, My Bed

Interpretations

• What sort of work of art are we dealing with?

Six Factors of Verbal Communication

• Roman Jakobson, ”Linguistics and Poetics”

context

Addresser message addressee

contact

code

Six Functions of Verbal Communication

• Roman Jakobson, ”Linguistics and Poetics”

Referential

Emotive poetic conative

phatic

metalingual

Five Approaches to Art

Contextual

Expressive Formalist Reader response

(phatic)

Structuralist

Saatchi Gallery commentary

Tracey Emin• My Bed• 1998• Mattress, linens, pillows, objects• 79 x 211 x 234 cm• Tracey Emin shows us her own bed, in all its

embarrassing glory. Empty booze bottles, fag butts, stained sheets, worn panties: the bloody aftermath of a nervous breakdown. By presenting her bed as art, Tracey Emin shares her most personal space, revealing she’s as insecure and imperfect as the rest of the world.

Herritage Film: Pride and Prejudice (1995)

The two openings

• Jane Austen• Authorial comment by

narrator (Telling)• Dialogue between Mr

and Mrs Bennett (Showing)

• The BBC