Thursday, February 25, 2016

 

Jacques Coulardeau at Academia.edu (51)



DOWNTON ABBEY, BRITISH TO THE DEEPEST ROOTS
https://www.academia.edu/22428790/DOWNTON_ABBEY_BRITISH_TO_THE_DEEPEST_ROOTS

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU


This series is a masterpiece in a way, not by its producer but in itself. Note this is true for several reasons, over six seasons of course, six the number of Solomon’s wisdom.

1- The period chosen here is crucial for the modern world. It is when the colonial mind of our European culture reached its summit and started its downfall with the First World War. After WWI colonialism in Europe was finished, even in spite of the Nazi relapse.

2- In Great Britain it was crucial the aristocracy came to terms with the social transformation of women having to be recognized as crucial in society and as having to hold jobs and social positions. Note that could also be true for the whole western world after WWI.

3- In Great Britain it was urgent they came to terms with the Irish question and it was hard in this noble family for whom an Irishman could be a chauffeur but the husband of one of their daughters, of the youngest most rebellious of the three daughters, that was an other story.

4- In the whole world it came to the surface of history that everyone had to have, has to have, a money earning job of some kind and that everyone has to live with the means they are able to earn by their work. The aristocracy has to learn that their mansions are not only theirs but they are the heritage of humanity and as such they have to open them to the curiosity of simple people, and that can become a regular income to take care of this heritage.

5- In the whole world too it is to be assumed that servants are no longer a special class serving the aristocracy – and the rich – in total subservience. Servants could never be the same and the number of servants had to go down and many had to find new social positions for which they were qualified or could acquire qualification, provided education was open to all.

It is such questions and quite a few more that make this series a real masterpiece and the production is so lavish, florid, beautiful, extravagant that no one can resist and not push the door or the TV remote control’s button to start the adventure.


Research Interests:
Education, Service Quality, Public Health, Ireland, Aristocracy, Hospital Management, WWI, Pig Farming, Universal Primary Education, World War One, Universal Basic Education, Gender and family history; history of subaltern groups such as servants and children; questions of masculinity and fatherhood, Domestic Servants, British Aristocracy and country houses, UNIVERSAL PRIIMARY EDUCATION, and Pig Farming Business Plan



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