On the subject of rural relationships [Link] [Link], Tim Dilworth, freelancing for National Geographic TV, contacted me last week about crop circles around Stonehenge – and we are definitely in the season for this kind of thing … Here are some extracts from our conversation. TD There are a couple of points I’d really like…
Author: Michael Shanks
Apparatus of Scholarship
Thanks to the many friends and colleagues who have emailed me or commented on my piece about Jennifer Wallace’s new book Digging the Dirt – and particularly Jennifer for responding so thoughfully. [Link] The book is well-written and a good read. But Jennifer, I complained, doesn’t indicate her sources and complementary discussion of her topic…
cross-Atlantic rural nostalgias?
An example of that rural nostalgia embedded in a particular look or aesthetic that we have been talking about [Link] I bought the Thomas the Tank Engine stories for my Ben today. The series does very well in the US and plays heavily on something I thought quite unique to the UK – not just…
the innocence of rural remains?
Thanks to Cornelius, Matthew and Troels for some very astute comment on the recent BBC item about the decline of the English countryside and its transformation into a cultural or heritage playgound – [Link] Key points for me – the remains of the past are wrapped up in relationships between city and “countryside” (a great…
on the archaeological imaginary
I forgot to mention in my recent post three key thinkers who are working through the archaeological imagination. Christine Finn, now at at Bradford UK, has been working on literary connections with the archaeological imagination for well over a decade. She has a new book out on Yeats and Heaney “Past Poetic” But she also…
loss and history’s physiognomy
An elegy for the UK countryside Item in the BBC Magazine. Half a century ago, probably even in the last two or three decades, the UK countryside had a definite purpose. It was essential to the entire country, because it was where much of our food was produced, which meant employment. Today we depend on…
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