CONSIDERING CULTURAL CONTEXT
Pre-reading activities
for D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking-Horse Winner”
Purpose:
  • build background knowledge about early 20th-century British culture;
  • learn how WWI changed the arts, society, consumption, leisure;
  • practise academic reading skills (skim/scan/details/critical reading);
  • prepare for The Rocking-Horse Winner by noticing themes of modernity, consumption, social pressures, and mass culture.

1 Look at the pictures below and decide which words might be applicable to describe both of them:
  • Victorian
  • modern
  • sombre
  • cynical
  • advertising
  • uncertain
  • bleak
  • emotional
We Are Making a New World
Culture in the Sceptr’d Isle
Skimming

2 Look through the article "Culture in the Sceptr'd Isle" by A. Sutcliffe (taken from A Companion to Early Twentieth-Century Britain). Read only headings, first sentences of paragraphs, and visually prominent words to answer:
  1. Is the text mainly descriptive, argumentative, analytical, or narrative?
  2. What large topics does the author write about? (Tick all that apply)
❏ Leisure
❏ Art and literature
❏ Social class
❏ WWI
❏ Consumption
❏ Mass culture
❏ Religion

What seems to be the author’s overall purpose?
Groupwork

3 Work in mini-groups to discuss different parts of the text
I Change and Tradition
1. According to the text, what aspects of British culture were traditionally seen as expressions of national values before 1900?
2. What role did industrialization play in the development of British culture by 1900?
3. How did the meaning of the word “modern” change in the early 20th century?
II The Culture of the Rich and Educated
1. Which social groups experienced the greatest cultural changes after 1900, and which groups changed the least?
2. What were the main leisure activities of the rich, and why was innovation in their culture limited?
3. How did the First World War affect the cultural confidence of the upper classes and Britain as a whole?
III Complex Currents in Literature (pp. 487–488)
1. Why did literature take on a more sombre tone between the two world wars?
2. What new themes and subjects became more acceptable in literature during this period?
3. What contributed to the growth of a more democratic, widespread literary culture in the 1930s?
IV Complex Currents in Literature (p. 489)
1. What kinds of poverty studies continued into the 1920s and 1930s, and which major authors or groups were involved?
2. What themes or attitudes were common in poetry written between the two World Wars?
3. What types of newspapers grew the most between 1910 and 1939, and what new features did they offer readers?
V The Changing Culture of the Masses
1. How did the lower middle classes differ from the working classes in lifestyle and attitude?
2. What economic and demographic changes between 1900 and 1939 helped transform British culture?
3. How did suburbanisation and new technologies influence everyday life?
4 Listen to your peers and write down your answers to the following questions:
  1. What was the new application of the term 'modern' in the early 20th century?
  2. Why was the Victorian world often criticized after WWI?
  3. How did WWI affect cultural creation?
  4. Why was a sombre tone a distinctive feature of fictional and non-fictional writing between the world wars?
  5. Which factors led to the upsurge in consumption and leisure activities after WWI?
5 Read pp. 492-499 of the article and summarize what the author writes about the spheres reflected in "The Rocking-Horse Winner", using the guiding questions:
Class Aspiration & Status
  • According to the article, how did people in the interwar years try to prove their social status through money, lifestyle, or appearance?
Consumerism
  • How might rising real earnings and the growth of new industries have encouraged families to buy more goods and want a “better lifestyle”?
Sport
  • How does the article describe sport as a new part of mass culture? Which kinds of sport were especially popular?
Toys
  • What does the article suggest about the rise of mass-produced toys and the new importance of children’s leisure?
Gambling
  • How does the article explain the popularity of gambling, betting, and the belief in “luck” as a way to solve financial anxiety in the interwar period?