brilliant supercurricular lecture last night

In the latest in our programme of supercurricular community lectures, we were thrilled yesterday evening to welcome Barry Peden, who delivered an inspirational, informative, well-researched and entertaining lecture on Modernism and the Exclusion of the Masses.

The lecture addressed late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century literature, the arts, and critical theory, but also benefitted those in the audience with an interest  in culture, society, history, psychology, and politics.

What isn't in a novel may be more important than what is

To kickstart his exploration of the driving forces behind Literary Modernism, and why and how the socio-cultural elite wrote and composed as they did, Barry gave us the above opening gambit to contemplate, and two dichotomous pieces of classical music to make us think about the moment in time when Modernism began to evolve: Vaughan Williams's Lark Ascending (composed in 1914 but not performed until 1920, post World War One), and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (1913).

As Barry explained, the striking differences between the two compositions helps to inform our understanding of the change in mood that fed into the Modernist movement: Stravinsky's work is edgy, controversial and forward-looking, whereas Vaughan Williams harks back to an age of pastoral beauty and bucolic calm, where folks knew their place and kept to it.

Barry then provided historical context for the evolution of Modernism and the attitudes of its elitist propagators: the huge expansion in population during the Nineteenth Century, the Education Act that promised to school the masses and develop levels of literacy, and the development of greater access to reading materials, culture, items and experiences beyond the bare necessities of life for the lower and working classes.

All of which reviled the literary and cultural elite, which was at the core of Barry's lecture, and he adeptly and entertainingly talked us through their barely concealed contempt for the workers, the tradespeople, the suburban dwellers, and the consumers of tinned food, by providing examples and analysis of the work of writers and critics such as TS Eliot, FR Leavis, WB Yeats, Wyndham Lewis, EM Forster, Oscar Wilde, and DH Lawrence.

Barry's passion for his subject matter was clear to see, and it was catching; and it was fantastic to see so many turn out to listen and engage.

I'm sure that I am not the only one who will now be (re)visiting the titles of Forster and Lawrence amongst others, and (re)exploring them from this perspective.  

With huge thanks to Barry for this enlightening and thought-provoking evening that was truly a delight to attend, and to Miss Hammond for organising this wonderful opportunity for our students, and for those in the wider school community, to broaden their intellectual horizons.