Beyond Downton Abbey

The popular British television series Downton Abbey has stimulated thinking about the way “they” lived in the early 20th-century.

Our series of six lectures offers an opportunity to go beyond the fancy frocks, starched aprons, and artful make-believe to think about the real lives lived and the complex values of a bygone era.

We will open up a window on the pros and cons of “potted” history, consider the period’s fashions, listen to its music, explore its presentation in fiction, and examine two hotly contested issues: women’s rights and the Empire. Dowager countesses, hold on to your hats!

You can attend these lectures individually, or as a series of six (6) lectures at a discounted rate: $165.60 + $8.28 (GST) = $173.88.

Call 778-782-8000 to register for the entire series at the reduced price. Please remember that we cannot apply discounts retroactively.

Lecture 1: Reinventing Tradition: The Edwardians Under Our Eyes

AHCP174 | Sat, Sep 14, 1:30–3:00 pm | Instructor: James Gifford

Immersed in Downton Abbey, we sometimes forget we are watching a television series. To remember, we will contrast the program as a cultural object against the historical entertainments it reinvents: books, performances, and the Edwardian media. By understanding those entertainments, we will discover our own “reinvention of tradition” today.

Lecture 2: Dinner Jackets and Boas: Edwardian Fashion

AHCP175 | Sat, Sep 21, 1:30–3:00 pm | Instructor: Ivan Sayers

Gentlemen and ladies once dressed for dinner, hunting, the opera, and mourning. We look back at an age when class and fashion ruled, when the tea-gown and morning coat held sway, and when valets dressed their masters and ladies’ maids adjusted hems and tucked pleats.

Lecture 3: “To the Manner Born”: The English Country House in Literature

AHCP176 | Sat, Sep 28, 1:30–3:00 pm | Instructor: John Stape

The physical symbol of aesthetic, social, and cultural fashions, the English country house is a locus of value and site of contest. To link place, class, and social identity, we will survey three country-house novels—Galsworthy’s The Man of Property (1906), Huxley’s Crome Yellow (1921), and Sackville-West’s The Edwardians (1930).

Lecture 4: “Keep the Home Fires Burning”: Popular Music and Ivor Novello

AHCP177 | Sat, Oct 5, 1:30–3:00 pm | Instructor: Neil Ritchie

Fascinating and now largely forgotten, the songwriter Ivor Novello was hugely popular during the period of Downton Abbey. He was an actor, fashion plate, and glamourously gay, and his West-End musicals were so popular and spectacular that Andrew Lloyd Webber is often called today’s Ivor Novello.

Lecture 5: Battling for Equality: Suffragettes and Women Workers

AHCP178 | Sat, Oct 19, 1:30–3:00 pm | Instructor: Fiona MacGregor

In Britain, early suffragettes were willing to die to obtain the vote, and many in the US went on hunger strikes. We will explore the connections between the right to vote and find respectable work outside the home in relation to the First World War.

Lecture 6: “On Which the Sun Never Sets”: The Edwardian Age and Empire

AHCP179 | Sat, Oct 26, 1:30–3:00 pm | Instructor: Logan Masilamani

In 1911, King George V visited India. The highlight of his trip on December 12 was a colourful ceremony known as the “Delhi Durbar,” at which he was crowned Emperor of India. We will look at the political, cultural, and social significance of this quintessentially Edwardian event.

How will I learn?

• Lectures
• Discussion (may vary from class to class)
• Audio and/or video clips

Who should take this course?

This course is for anyone who is interested in learning more about the social, political, and cultural life of early 20th-century Britain.

Textbooks and learning materials

Reading material (if applicable) will be available in class.