Annales ELE 2006, n°13



Annales ELE 2006, n°13 – A few notes

1) Map of the 33 London Boroughs:

Source:

This map breaks London down into the city's 33 local government Boroughs. By clicking on the name or number of a borough a link to their official website will open in a new window. Note however, they should not be confused with the names of traditional neighbourhoods of London such as Fitzrovia, Bloomsbury and Marylebone etc. 

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1. [pic] 5. [pic] 9. [pic] 13. [pic]

2. [pic] 6. [pic] 10. [pic] 14. [pic]

3. [pic] 7. [pic] 11. [pic] 15. [pic]

4. [pic] 8. [pic] 12. [pic] 16. [pic]

These links refer to boroughs shown numerically on our map. 17. [pic]

2) Shepherds Bush, W12, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (Cf. 13 in the map above).

W12 London is located on the far Western border of Central London and is called Shepherds Bush. Shepherds Bush is linked directly to the A40 dual carriageway which gives access to the M40 and M25. This area is also close to the Junction of the A4 and M4 with direct access to Heathrow airport. Central to Shepherds Bush is Shepherds Bush Green with a large selection of shops and other amenities including the train station. Also on the Shepherds Bush Green is the Shepherds Bush Theatre used by the BBC for many of its live productions. The BBC has its base in White City which is just to the North of Shepherds Bush Green. On the North Western side of the Green is a very popular market, Shepherds Bush Market.

Shepherds Bush is 4.4 miles from Central London (Piccadilly Circus).

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It is bordered by Hammersmith and Kensington to the south, Notting Hill to the east, Willesden and Harlesden to the north, and Acton to the west.

W12 is a London postal district for Shepherd's Bush in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.

Shepherd's Bush is a district in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham situated 4.9 miles (7.9 km) west of Charing Cross.

It is bordered by Hammersmith and Kensington to the south, Notting Hill to the east, Willesden and Harlesden to the north, and Acton to the west.

Source: 's_Bush

Shepherd's Bush Green

Shops on Uxbridge Road on the north side of the Green

The area's focal point is Shepherd's Bush Green (or Shepherd's Bush Common), an 8-acre (approx) area of open grass surrounded by trees and roads. The Green has two tennis courts.

The name is thought to have originated from the use of the common land here as a resting point for shepherds on their way to Smithfield Market in the City of London [1]. An alternative theory is that it could have been named after someone in the area, because in 1635 the area was recorded as "Sheppards Bush Green" [citation needed].

Population

Significant communities of travellers from Australia and New Zealand exist in Shepherd's Bush. Road names in the area also suggest links to South Africa. There is a Polish community, with a community centre in nearby Hammersmith. Somalian and East African communities have a strong association with the area.

Places of interest

Running parallel to, and partly under, the Hammersmith and City Line tracks there is a large permanent market, selling groceries, cooked food, clothing and bric-à-brac. It caters considerably to the local Afro/Caribbean and Somali community.

A new 12-screen cinema opened recently, and the shopping centre that opened in the early 1970s was redeveloped. Also in W12 are Hammersmith Hospital, Hammersmith Park and HM Wormwood Scrubs Prison. It is also the home to Queens Park Rangers who play their home games in Loftus Road.

The Westfield Group (with Hausinvest Europa) are building a new shopping centre, bounded by the West Cross Route (A3220, was the M41), the Westway (A40, previously A40(M)), and Wood Lane, A219 (also the old A40). This centre will be branded "whitecity" (a registered trade mark) and is mainly being constructed on the site of the Franco-British Exhibition (1908) and the 1908 Olympics. However, this area is considered by locals to be part of Shepherd's Bush rather than its namesake, White City.

Transport

The common itself is served by three London Underground stations - two of which are named Shepherd's Bush, confusingly. Shepherd's Bush (Central line) at the eastern apex of the common is the busiest station (both in terms of passengers and trains), whilst Shepherd's Bush (Hammersmith and City line) is about 600m to the west (near the north-western corner of the green). The remaining south-western corner of the green is served by Goldhawk Road, also on the Hammersmith & City line.

The primarily residential areas to the west of the common, also recognised as part of Shepherd's Bush, are also served by White City and (somewhat further afield) East Acton stations on the Central Line.

As a result of the current development work at White City, two new transport hubs will be created in the area. The "northern interchange" will consist of the existing White City station on the Central line along with a new bus station and an adjacent new station (also to be named White City) on the Hammersmith and City line at the Wood Lane overbridge. The station will be positioned east of Wood Lane with its entrance north of the line, to reduce the walking distance for those connecting with the Central line at the existing White City station.

There will also be a "southern interchange", comprising of another new bus station, a redeveloped Central line station, a new (or rather reinstated) station on the West London Line and potentially a tram terminus for the West London Tram, which is a proposed on-street light rail line running from here via Acton, Ealing and Southall to Uxbridge in the west.

The development is due to open in 2009.

Associations with entertainment

Shepherd's Bush was the fictional home of Steptoe & Son, at 24 Oil Drum Lane. The BBC used to have many offices in Shepherd's Bush, but all have now been closed or re-located. They included the Lime Grove Studios on the site of previous film studios Gaumont and Gainsborough Pictures. Sulgrave House, Threshold and Union Houses and Kensington House—now a hotel.

The BBC also used the Shepherd's Bush Empire theatre built in 1901 as a TV studio for many years for such shows as Wogan, That's Life!, Crackerjack, This is Your Life and others until 1991 and is now a concert venue. But BBC Television is still based at Television Centre in Wood Lane, their other major site/building BBC — White City stands on the site of the 1908 London Olympic Games, also called White City.

Shepherd's Bush Empire is now a music venue, and has played host to some very popular acts, including David Bowie, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. There is another, rather smaller, venue at 310 Uxbridge Road called Bush Hall, built in 1905 as a dance hall. It predominantly showcases smaller acoustic performers 'on their way up' (including M Ward and Emiliana Torrini), but has also been used by much better-known acts like R.E.M., Scissor Sisters and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds for fan club shows.

The members of several important rock and roll groups, including Bush, The Clash, The Who and the Sex Pistols, grew up in Shepherd's Bush, as did (more recently) rock singer Pete Doherty. The post-grunge band Bush take their name from Shepherd's Bush. In the Spring of 2004 two actors, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman rented a small property in Bulwer Street, off of Wood Lane, where they prepared for their epic motorcyle journey Long Way Round.

Classical musicians Evelyn Glennie and Robert Steadman have both lived in Shepherd's Bush.

3) Marble Arch, W1 (a London postal district located mostly in the City of Westminster – Cf. 4 in the map above, with a small part in the London Borough of Camden – Cf. 9).

Source:

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Marble Arch is a white Carrara marble monument near Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, at the western end of Oxford Street in London, England.

The arch was designed by John Nash in 1828, based on the triumphal arch of Constantine in Rome. It was originally erected on The Mall as a gateway to the new Buckingham Palace (rebuilt by Nash from the former Buckingham House), but was found to be too narrow for the state coach, and was moved in 1851 to its present location. It may soon be moved again.

There are three small rooms inside that were used as a police station until 1950.

Some sculptures intended for the arch ended up on the façade of the National Gallery due to Nash's financial problems. In particular are those above the old main entrance under the portico and high up on the east façade, opposite the Edith Cavell memorial (Britannia). Originally intended to represent the campaigns of the Duke of Wellington, these sculptures include reclining personifications of Asia and India, with a blank roundel in between. Had the arch been completed as planned, the Duke of Wellington's face would have been depicted in the roundel.

The arch stands close to the site of the Tyburn gallows (sometimes called 'Tyburn Tree'), a place of public execution from 1388 until 1793.

The area once was home to the largest cinema screen in London, the Odeon Marble Arch. Originally 60 feet wide, the Odeon showcased 70 mm films. The cinema was converted into a mini-plex in the mid 1990s.

The only traffic allowed to pass through the arch is members of the royal family and the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery.

The nearest London Underground station is Marble Arch, on the Central Line.

W1 is a London postal district located mostly in the City of Westminster with a small part in the London Borough of Camden. It comprises the much of the West End of London including Soho, Mayfair, and Marylebone. The district is bordered by Charing Cross Road and Tottenham Court Road to the East, Euston Road and Marylebone Road to the North, Edgware Road and Park Lane to the West, and Piccadilly to the South.

London W1 is the West End of London with premier shops and hotels.  It covers such world renown areas as Mayfair and Park Lane.  Well known as the premier properties on the UK edition of Monopoly.

Oxford Street runs east to west past Oxford Circus to Marble Arch.  With all the major flagship stores: Selfridges, Marks and Spencer, John Lewis, Debenhams, Allders, House of Fraser there are over 3 miles (5km) of shop-front!

4) Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter, CH, CBE (born October 10, 1930) is a British playwright and theatre director. He has written for theatre, radio, television and film. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005.

Early life

Pinter was born in Hackney in London to working class Ashkenazi Jewish parents with a possible Sephardi family link. (One of the family traditions claims that the name Pinter is changed from da Pinta or possibly Pinto). He was educated at Hackney Downs Grammar School and, briefly, at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). He published poetry as a young man.

Career

Pinter began working in the theatre as an actor, under the stage name David Baron. His first play, The Room, was first performed by Bristol University students in 1957, including acclaimed actor Henry Woolf, who commissioned the play.

His second play (which is today one of his best-known), The Birthday Party (1957), was initially a flop, despite a positive review in the Sunday Times by leading theatre critic Harold Hobson. But after the success of The Caretaker in 1960, which established him, The Birthday Party was revived, and this time was well received.

These plays, and other early works such as The Homecoming (1964), have sometimes been labeled as displaying the "comedy of menace". They often take an apparently innocent situation, and reveal it as a threatening and absurd one because of characters acting in ways which may seem inexplicable both to the audience and, at times, to other characters. Pinter's work was marked by the influence of Samuel Beckett from the earliest works onwards, and the two men became long-standing friends.

Pinter began to direct more frequently during the 1970s, becoming an associate director of the National Theatre in 1973. His later plays tend to be shorter, often appearing as allegories of oppression.

He has been nominated for an Oscar for best adapted screenplay twice (The French Lieutenant's Woman, 1981, and Betrayal, 1983).

In January 2005 he announced that he was retiring from writing plays to dedicate himself to political campaigning.

Political campaigning

Pinter has been a champion of freedom of expression for many years through his association with International PEN. In 1985, he joined the American playwright Arthur Miller on an International PEN-Helsinki Watch Committee mission to Turkey to investigate and protest the torture of imprisoned writers. There he met many victims of political oppression. At an American embassy function honouring Miller, instead of exchanging pleasantries, Pinter spoke of people having an electric current applied to their genitals—which got him thrown out. (Miller, in support, left the embassy with him.) Pinter's experience of oppression in Turkey and the suppression of the Kurdish language inspired his 1988 play Mountain Language.

Pinter strongly opposed the NATO bombing campaign on Yugoslavia, which he held was illegal, the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. He famously called President of the United States, George W. Bush a mass murderer and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair a 'deluded idiot'. He frequently writes political letters to British newspapers. He has likened the Bush administration to Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany, saying the U.S. was charging towards world domination while the American public and the United Kingdom's "mass-murdering" prime minister sat back and watched.

In his Nobel Prize Lecture Art, Truth & Politics (December 7, 2005) he asserts:

Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.

As every single person here knows, the justification for the invasion of Iraq was that Saddam Hussein possessed a highly dangerous body of weapons of mass destruction, some of which could be fired in 45 minutes, bringing about appalling devastation. We were assured that was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq had a relationship with Al-Qaeda and shared responsibility for the atrocity in New York of September 11th 2001. We were assured that this was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq threatened the security of the world. We were assured it was true. It was not true.

The truth is something entirely different. The truth is to do with how the United States understands its role in the world and how it chooses to embody it.

Pinter is also an active delegate of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, an organization that defends Cuba, is supportive of the government of Fidel Castro, and campaigns against the U.S. embargo on the country. He is a member of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milošević, an organization which appealed for the freedom of Slobodan Milošević until Milošević's death in 2006.

Honours

Pinter was appointed CBE in 1966 and became a Companion of Honour in 2002 (having previously declined a knighthood in 1996).

On October 13, 2005 the Swedish Academy announced Pinter was the recipient of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature, stating that, "in his plays [he] uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms". Pinter, ailing from throat cancer, could not attend the Nobel Prize awards ceremony in Sweden, and chose instead to deliver his laureate lecture via satellite link on December 7, 2005. Speaking with obvious difficulty, and seated in a wheelchair, he attacked the United States for having "supported and in many cases engendered every right wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War." Tying in his political stance with literature, Pinter spoke about the search for the truth in both literature and politics. The United States is the "greatest show on the road," said Pinter, because it masquerades an aggressive foreign policy with the rhetoric of freedom. For example, of the use by American politicians of the phrase "the American people" Pinter said, "language is actually employed to keep thought at bay." He also attacked Great Britain and the United States over the Iraq war, and demanded war crimes prosecution of Tony Blair.

UK writer Christopher Hitchens disputed the awarding of Pinter by commenting: "...the ludicrous elevation of a third-rate and effectively former dramatist is driven by pseudo-intellectual European hostility to the change of regime in Iraq" (Wall Street Journal, October 17, 2005).

Personal life

Vivian Merchant, who was probably best known for her performance in Alfie, was Pinter's first wife; they married in 1956.

She appeared in many of his works, notably The Homecoming on stage (1965) and screen (1973). Their marriage began disintegrating in the mid-1960s and Pinter left Merchant suddenly in 1977 to live with historian Lady Antonia Fraser, daughter of the 7th Earl Longford, who left her husband, Sir Hugh Fraser.

Harold Pinter had also been unfaithful with Joan Bakewell previously, about which he wrote the dramatic play, Betrayal, which ended up on Broadway.

Merchant went public about her distress, and famously told the press that Pinter had not taken many clothes with him; but, she quipped, if he didn't have any shoes to wear, he could always borrow Fraser's: "She has very big feet, you know."

However, Merchant never got over the dissolution of her marriage, which finally came about in 1980, and her premature death at the age of 54 on October 3, 1983 was brought about by acute alcoholism.

Miscellaneous

Pinter is the chairman of the Gaieties Cricket Club. He is also an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.

On October 13, 2005 (the day his Nobel Prize was announced) Pinter was erroneously reported dead on Sky News. (This may have been because he has been suffering from throat cancer for several years, and also injured his head in a fall shortly before the report.)

His unique brand of drama has been given the name Pinteresque, thus placing him in the company of a few select authors who have been unique or influential enough to become adjectives (see: Brechtian, Joycean, Kafkaesque, and Orwellian).

Within ten years his was perhaps the dominating presence in the English theater. And so distinctive was his work that, in a very short time, a new adjective came to describe the menacing atmosphere, heavily laden silences, and deep incomprehension between characters that were the hallmark of his plays: “Pinteresque.” No doubt his name was admirably suited to the formation of adjectives, as Rattigan’s name was not: for “Rattiganesque” or “Rattiganish” are clumsy, ugly locutions. But the remarkable fact is that, after the production of a mere handful of plays, many people who had never seen or read a work by Pinter knew precisely what the word “Pinteresque” meant. Such implicit recognition is given to very few authors, and is a sign of their cultural significance.

Text of Pinter’s 2005 Nobel Prize Lecture:

5) William Mulready

Source:

William Mulready (April 1, 1786 - July 7, 1863) was an Irish genre painter living in London. He is best known for his romanticizing depictions of rural scenes.

William Mulready was born in Ennis, County Clare. Early in his life, in 1792, the family moved to London, where he was able to get an education and was taught painting well enough so that he was accepted at the Royal Academy School at the age of fourteen.

Many of his early pictures show landscapes, before he started to build a reputation as a genre painter from 1808 on, painting mostly everyday scenes from rural life. Besides this, he also illustrated books. His paintings were very popular in Victorian times.

In 1815 he was elected a member of the Royal Academy. In the same year, he also was awarded the French "Légion d'honneur".

He died at the age of 77 in Bayswater, London and is buried in the nearby Kensal Green Cemetery where a monument to his memory was erected.

Commentary 1:

In late 1997, while researching Australian photography at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, I entered one of the galleries displaying two exquisite cabinet paintings by William Mulready, painted in 1838 and 1839. They were painted in the strong pallette of colours characteristic of the Pre-raphaelite painter, Holman Hunt, and depicted two quintessential moments of Victorian sensibility. One, The Sonnet, depicted a maiden reading a poem to a young man, in hunched attentiveness. The other, entitled Open your mouth and shut your eyes, after the popular Victorian era catch phrase “Open your mouth and shut your eyes, and see what tomorrow may bring”, showed a young man reclining, side on to the viewer dangling a cherry, about to be consumed by a young maiden, herself caught in a swoon of making a wish.

Commentary 2: cvc/classes/ency/IMG/doc/Mulready_Sonnet_Anais.doc

1) Démarche et observation:

       Le sonnet est une peinture de William Mulready qui fut créée en 1839.

Actuellement au Victoria & Albert Museum cette toile de 36 x 31 cm est faite à base de peinture à l’huile.

       C’est à l’aide d’un pinceau et d’une toile que William Mulready nous fait découvrir une scène de la vie quotidienne de ce jeune couple. Le thème principal est la séduction puisque ce tableau Le sonnet nous plonge dans un univers romantique et poétique.

       La lumière ensoleillée tient une place importante sur ce tableau, le cadre y est agréable ce qui se définit par des couleurs vives avec le vert, le rouge.

De plus la scène se passe dans la nature au bord d’un ruisseau. 

 

 

2) Description:

       William Mulready utilise une toile de format rectangulaire de petite surface puisque ce tableau mesure 36 x 31 cm.

On peut voir deux personnages principaux un homme et une femme assis sur un tronc d’arbre dans un décor naturel.

       Les regards convergent vers un objet principal un sonnet qui suscite un certain suspense puisque qu’on ne sait pas ce qu’il contient réellement. Le regard de la jeune femme traduit une certaine surprise qui est accentuée par le geste de sa main gauche sur sa bouche. On pourrait penser qu’elle est envahie par l’émotion.

       Le regard de l’homme posé sur la jeune femme nous laisse supposer que lui aussi est en attente d’une réponse. Il a d’ailleurs interrompu sa lecture puisque l’on peut voir un livre ouvert étendu sur sa droite.

La demoiselle attire d’autant plus l’attention avec sa robe rouge et sa place dominante au centre du tableau. Ce qui est également renforcé par les lignes de tiers.

       Les vêtements de ces deux personnages nous montrent qu’il s’agit de gens aisés. Peut-être est-ce un dimanche après midi où la lecture est un moment de détente. On peut également penser qu’il s’agit d’un jeune couple qui partage de bons ou mauvais moments ensemble. 

3) Classement :

       William Mulready est un peintre Irlandais né en 1786. William Mulready a reçu une éducation très complète. Sa famille fut déplacée à Dublin quand il était très petit puis à Londres en 1792.

Il fit de brillantes études à l’académie Royale. Son talent a été cultivé dans ses débuts par le peintre John Graham et relevait également de l’influence de William John Varley. Il avait pour habitude d’utiliser une technique assez « défunte » des Pré-Raphaelites.

Très vite il s’orienta vers une peinture de paysages et de scènes de genre, de scènes simples de la vie quotidienne. Ces scènes de genres que William Mulready nous présente sont très certainement tirées d’un vécu ou d’une inspiration liés à son environnement, son éducation. On retrouve tous ces aspects dans le tableau ci-dessus. Ses peintures sont de manière générale des descriptions de personnes du village dans des scènes quotidiennes, mis en valeur par une palette lumineuse. Il avait également pour sujet le souci de l’enfance et de l’éducation, et à travailler comme illustrateur.

       Dans sa manière de travailler Mulready était lent, soigneux et méticuleux dans son approche de l’art. Il a souvent fait des croquis préparatoires avant de se commettre à une toile finale. 

 

4) Interprétation :

       On peut penser qu’il s’agit d’un jeune couple certainement du village mais néanmoins de famille relativement aisée. Ceci se définit par les vêtements, la manière de se tenir et par l’activité principale de ce couple : la lecture et l’écriture. En effet au 19ème siècle l’éducation n’était pas présente dans toutes les familles. Or un sonnet est un poème qui répond à des règles fixes pour la disposition de rimes. Or on pourrait penser que ce sonnet a été écrit par l’homme pour séduire ou avouer son amour à la jeune femme.

       Sur cette peinture apparaît plusieurs contrastes. Tout d’abord entre l’agréable et le sentiment de tristesse ou d’émotion. En effet on est face à un moment de détente sous un soleil resplendissant au bord d’un ruisseau. Les couleurs sont vives, on se trouve dans un espace ouvert.  Néanmoins un poème qui se situe au centre du tableau vient troubler ce moment de repos. L’attitude de la jeune femme qui paraît émue nous laisse penser que ce poème fait l’objet d’un acte de séduction. Tout converge vers cette « feuille de papier » ce qui lui donne d’autant plus d’importance.

       On pourrait imaginer que l’homme est là pour déclarer son amour à la jeune femme d’où l’intérêt de ce lieu d’un romantisme agréable et discret. Mais c’est à ce niveau-là qu’on retrouve une ambiguïté. Ce paysage extérieur dans lequel nous plonge le tableau ne nous garantit pas pour autant l’unique présence de ce couple. En effet cette toile reste relativement fermée sur l’action des personnages mais ne nous dévoile aucunement ce qui se passe autour.

       Ce tableau traduit bien la réalité d’une vie quotidienne qui dans ce cas est celle d’un couple. En d’autres termes, on assiste ici à un moment intime qui ne vient pas pour autant troubler un acte de séduction. 

Other paintings by Mulready

a) Train Up a Child in the Way He Should Go; and When He Is Old He Will Not Depart From It, 1841

Oil on canvas, 25 1/2 x 31 in. (64.8 x 78.7 cm)

b) Choosing the Wedding Gown, 1845

c) The Last Inn  1834-5

Oil on mahogany, support: 622 x 762 mm frame: 977 x 1112 x 88 mm

Presented by Robert Vernon 1847

Mulready often explored themes of childhood and education. This picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1835, when he was nearly fifty. It shows the elaborate groupings and high colour key of his mature work.

The master of a country school bows facetiously to a cringing late arrival. A birch lies to hand, and in the foreground sits a boy already in disgrace. Other boys lurk outside the door as if uncertain whether to join the class at all. The landscape framed by the large window contrasts nature outside with the nurture of the schoolroom.

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