Communication and Conflict

COMMUNICATION & CONFLICT

School of History, Classics, and Archaeology.

Issue No. 31 May 2022

Contents From the Editor | 3 Societies Updates | 4 Hellenization in the Near East | Alex Smith | 8 Silence is Golden (especially if you need to kill an emperor): Ancient Conspiracy Theory and the Use of Silence as a Literary Device | Molly McDowell | 10 Authors and Amicitia: Women and Letter Writing in Late Antiquity | Susie Hutchinson | 12 ‘Unreliable Barbarians’: How Language Contributed to Cultural Conflict in Late Medieval Scotland | Alice Goodwin | 14 “As long as life endures”: Revisiting the Evidence of Catherine Howard’s Guilt | Naomi Wallace | 16 The Creation of a Friendship and the Downfall of a Queen: The Letters of Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots | Sophia Aiello | 19 Print, Propaganda, and PR: The English Civil War | Sophie Whitehead | 21 Masculinity in Conflict: Desire, Encounter, and Race in Early Modern Travel Literature | Boryana Ivanova | 23 A Conflict of Memory: Greece, Byzantium, and British Identity in the Nineteenth Century | Tristan Craig | 26 The Evolution, Themes, and Paradoxes of Irish Rebel Songs | Verity Limond | 29 Sed miles, sed pro patria: Classical Imitation and Allusion in the Epigraphic History of the First World War | Izzy Nendick | 31 The Fairness Doctrine: Informing the Public or Infringing Upon Them? | Sam Marks | 33 Communication of Resistance, Complicity, and Supremacy: The Cruciality of Conflict over Animal Lives and Symbolism to “Colonial Africa” | Grace Volante | 35 How Communication Saved the World: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the WynnePenkovsky Espionage | Kat Jivkova | 38 Communication and Consistency: Romanisation of Mandarin | Archie Jacob | 40 CELEBRITY EXCLUSIVE! Humanitarian Reporting and the Tabloid News | Hannah Clutton-Brock | 43 On History and Comprehension: The Discourses and Approaches of the Intellectual, Institutional, and Public | Georgia Smith | 46

Bibliography | 48

The Team Editor in Chief: Alice Goodwin Secretary: Melissa Kane Treasurer: Inge Erdal Digital Editor: Tristan Craig Podcast Editor: Sofia Parkinson Klimaschewski Columnists: Alex Smith Alexander MacPhail Amy Hendrie Boryana Ivanova Etta Coleman Eva Campbell Finlay Cormack Fiona Macrae Hela Gorecka Jack Bennett Jess Clark John Whitehead Kat Jivkova Kavisha Kamalananthan Megan Sickmueller Rebecca Jinks Sally Dolphin Sophia Aiello Sophie Whitehead Junior Columnists: Mai Takahashi Claudia Efemini Georgia Smith Megan Crutchely Ruth Cullen Sam Marks Copy Editors: Abigail Leong Ailsa Fraser Alisa Husain Aneet Sehmi Evangeline May Jordan Leonard Kathryn Beach Katie Reinmann Lucy Lloyd Rosie Inwald Shelby Thorne Sophie Comninos Cover Designer: Melanie Wu Illustrators: Aoife Céitinn Emily Geeson Lydia Wiernik Melanie Wu Podcast Team: Amal Abdi Emilia Bacaksizlar Lydia Wiernik

From the Editor Contrasting the beginning of my previous ‘From the Editor’ article in ‘Development and Deterioration’ where I wrote of 2021: ‘it was easy to believe that the world was on its way out of crisis, that development was being made, and that the end of the tunnel was approaching,’ the beginning of 2022 has been decidedly less optimistic. With the continuing war in Ukraine, the deterioration of women’s rights in the US, and the cost-of-living crisis in the UK, global conflict has been at the forefront of both media and public consciousness this year. To turn this awareness of conflict toward history, then, we find continuity in conflict from the ancient world to the modern one.

The importance of communication in personal relationships has become somewhat of a ‘buzz-word’ topic over the past decade. When problems arise they can usually be attributed to a lack of communication and solved with open communication. But how does this apply throughout history? Can we identify moments of failed communication in ancient societies? And how does communication impact and interact with conflict across History, Classics, and Archaeology? This is what we have asked of our writers this semester, prompting discussions of the importance of communication in all forms of conflict, from the personal to the cultural to the global. How we communicate conflict, as well as the memory of conflict, forms the backbone of history. Hearing perspectives from within conflict allows for the broadening of scholarly understandings of incidents, providing the history of conflict with personal experiences, and encouraging us to look at the people behind the events.

In exploring these questions and seeking to broaden the definition of communication and conflict we have collectively produced a huge variety of articles. Taking a chronological approach to this journal, we begin with Alex Smith’s article on Hellenization in the Near East, then moving westwards to consider Ancient Roman conspiracy theory and letter writing, before turning to the Middle Ages and Early Modern periods with questions about cultural conflict, communication between queens, and travel literature. In the articles on modern history, we find considerations of law, espionage, colonialism, and tabloids, representing the diversification of communication across the twentieth century.

Yet again I must recognise the huge amount of work that went into this journal by our team. Our columnists, who have collectively published over one hundred articles on our website this year; our copy editors, who have been through every one of those articles with a fine tooth comb to ensure that they are ready to be read; our podcast team, who have begun with a bang with their first episode on ‘The History of British Psychiatry’ in conversation with Jessica Campbell; and finally our illustrators, whose work brightens up the pages of this journal. A special shout out must also go to my wonderful friends who have made this journal particularly special through their contributions, thank you.

Finally, a huge thank you to Melanie Wu for once again designing an incredible cover, and for managing to encapsulate everything this journal is in a single image. To the senior editorial team, Melissa Kane, Inge Erdal, Tristan Craig, and Sofia Parkinson Klimaschewski, thank you for your continued support throughout this year, you’ve made being Editor in Chief a distinct pleasure. Now to pass over to the new team, I cannot wait to see where this journal goes under the leadership of our next Editor in Chief, Tristan Craig, as well as his new team: Katie Reinmann, Ailsa Fraiser, Sam Marks, and Sofia Parkinson Klimaschewski.

Thank you for your continued support of Retrospect, we are immensely grateful for every reader, and we hope you enjoy ‘Communication and Conflict’!

Happy reading!

Alice Goodwin Editor in Chief 2021-22

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History Society After the successes of last semester, we have yet again had a term packed with a range of events and filled with so many of the year’s highlights!

the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We ended the year with an event in partnership with the 93% Club and Arts and Heritage society to discuss barriers that state educated students face in careers and academia within History, Classics, and Archaeology. We are so honoured to have been a part of so many powerful initiatives this semester. On the social side of things, we were very happy to collaborate with our friends at Classics and Arch Soc to host a pub quiz with members of HCA staff. Congratulations to the Modern Historians for their win!

We started 2022 off with a bang, with a coffee morning social and an event run by our student experience officers working with the careers service to help students find summer internship and placement opportunities for HCA students. This was followed by another amazing careers event where we explored what students can do with their history degrees, options open to them, where previous graduates have gone and where to look for opportunities. We ended the month of January with the annual Burns Night supper, including a haggis, neeps, and tatties meal and a reading of Burns’ poetry by our very own Secretary!

Throughout this year, we have put a lot of effort into trying to strengthen the community within our school.

We worked to finalise the 120th Anniversary Alumni Testimony Project, a project started by the 2018/19 President of the Society, Ruby, to collect testimonies from History Alumni on their memories at the school and a part of our society. These are beautiful testimonies and will be published on our online blog shortly. We are also so thrilled and honoured to announce that we were the winners of the Student Community Award at the 2021/22 Student’s Association Awards! We have worked tirelessly throughout this year to put on a variety of events, including the trips, walking tours, careers events, socials and our many academic events to showcase marginalised histories. We also continue to support our wonderful sports teams, Rugby, Football, Netball who always impress us with their community spirit and wins throughout the season. This year we have also helped to build and expand our new co-ed hockey team which currently stands at the top of the intramural league. Thank you so much for all your support this year and for making this happen!

We were so excited to have so many trips in our events calendar this semester. After almost a year’s worth of planning, we had a fantastic trip to Krakow during the February reading week (huge shout out to our trip secretaries!). This was followed by a ‘Hidden Histories Walking Tour of Edinburgh,’ exploring important sites in Edinburgh that hold histories often underrepresented. We then ended March with a fun trip to Stirling Castle planned by one of our First Year Reps!

Our Academic calendar has been equally busy, hosting an event with University of Edinburgh PhD researchers to discuss recent themes in Modern Irish History. As 2021 and 2023 are notable centenaries in Irish History, from partition, Irish Wars of Independence, to the emergence of the Irish Free State, we were delighted to host such an event! We also celebrated Women’s History Month with our event ‘The Paradox of Female Calligraphy: Power and Prestige in Tang China’ which was incredibly fascinating.

Overall, it has been an incredible year filled with so many positive memories and I could not be more grateful. It has been the greatest pleasure to be the History Society President this past year. Thank you so much to my wonderful committee for whom this year and this award would not have been possible without.

Transitioning to being out of a pandemic is not an easy task, and yet each week I was so impressed by all of their diligence, innovation, kindness and hard work.

I am continually awe-inspired by your achievements and passions. The best of luck to the new committee and to the new President, Connall Maclennan. I know you will be great!

To finish off the year, we had two huge socials: a Postgraduate Ceilidh held at Marlin’s Wynd and our Annual Ball which was held at Dynamic Earth this year. We had the best time dancing the night away with you all! Another huge shout out to our postgraduate representative and our social secretaries for these wonderful evenings!

We’ve also had many collaborations this semester that deserve a special highlight. In February, we worked in solidarity with staff to host an event discussing key topics around UCU Industrial Action. In March we supported and participated in the initiative led

by Edinburgh Political Union and involving other campus societies including Amnesty International Society, Polish Society and also Solidarity with Ukraine Scotland to have a roundtable discussion on

Scarlett Kiaras-Attari History Society President 2021-22

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Archaeology Society It is my pleasure to bring you the Archaeology Society news for the final time as Archsoc President. This year has been a whirlwind of exciting events and lots of new faces for the society. I hope all of those who attended our events have enjoyed the shenanigans, and that those who haven’t think about joining us next year!

Jessica Nutt! We enjoyed some lovely refreshments during our break, and the audience mingled amongst our varied stalls.

On the Saturday evening we were lucky enough to be entertained by the wonderful Kenneth McElroy of Caithness Broch Project, who hosted a very special and hilarious pub quiz. We also found out the winners of the magnificent raffle held by the Aberdeen University Archsoc. A big thank you to Betty and Jonny from Aberdeen who, alongside their committee, helped raise £289 for the charity Crisis Scotland through the raffle!

Semester two started off with a bang this year, with our first of two Fieldwork Fairs. Kindly organized

by Darcey and Claudette, this event was held online with a range of speakers from the Archaeology department and outside organizations from all over the UK on upcoming fieldwork. This was a great success, and we even hit our Zoom capacity at one point! We hope this helped some of you to find new opportunities! In January our members also collected their beautiful Archsoc merchandise of mugs, beanies, hoodies, and stickers. A big thank you to my fellow executive Darcey and Patricía for helping with the merchandise.

Our final SSASC day consisted of two intriguing panels. The first panel on ‘Non-traditional Routes into Archaeology and Heritage’ featured Mike Benson (Scottish Crannog Centre), Cara Jones (CIfA), Michael Harris (EAFS) and Jason Oliver (Scottish Crannog Centre). The panel recognized the challenges in moving archaeology away from gatekeeping and pay barriers. The title of the panel was challenged, and an interesting discussion around our own biased languages in the sector was raised.

One of my favorite elements of the conversation was around the parallels between neurodivergence and those working in archaeology; how this is something we can embrace and celebrate in our sector.

Our usual weekly events continued amongst the various conferences and big events. Our Social Secretary Ross continued our successful biweekly coffee morning, both inside and outside, no matter the weather! Ross also organized a movie night and St Patrick’s Day social (heavily endorsed by my Irish self), which went down a treat. Thanks to our Dig Chiefs Claudette and Grayson, our weekly dig at Cammo Estate continued, alongside our growing relationship with the Edinburgh Archaeological Field Society (EAFS). This has been a great opportunity for members who have never excavated before to learn new skills, with members even carrying out Geophysical survey one weekend! Our successful Archsoc Lecture Series also continued into semester two, organized by our Academic Events Officer John. I would like to thank all our amazing speakers for semester two: Dr. Alison Sheridan, Dr. Sam Leggett, Kirsty Lilley, Prof. Ian Ralston, and Maureen Kilpatrick. Hopefully next semester these can return to in person venues!

February seen the arrival of our biggest event yet. On the 12th and 13th of February we hosted the annual Scottish Student Archaeology Society Conference (SSASC). This year we were lucky enough to host in the beautiful Playfair Library, while streaming online. Our first day consisted of student speakers from all over Scotland, who shared their research. The audience voted for their favorite of the day, and I was very pleased to award the Antiquity Prize for Best Speaker to Edinburgh University’s very deserving

The second panel on ‘The Portrayal of Archaeology in Media and Pop Culture’ consisted of Kenneth McElroy (Caithness Broch Project), Stuart Munro (Pictish Memes), Caroline Nicolay (Pario Gallico), Thomas Timbrell (Big Beynon’s Blacksmithing) and Hamish Findlay Lamley (Pictavia Leather). Many of the panel have worked on major documentaries, as well as being prominent figures on social media, who gave the audience a deep and varied perspective on media representation. Some healthy debate was had on how those in the sector can approach this topic and working on set is not always about accurate representation of archaeology, but how the entertainment value can spark the interest of the public in crafts and the past.

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Following on from SSASC, Archsoc did not slow down and hosted our inaugural Queering Archaeology, held to mark LGBTQ+ History Month.

This event was entirely created by our Equality and Inclusion Officer, Alex. The online event featured talks by Dr. Diane Bolger, Dr Kathrine M. Kinkopf and our keynote lecture by the renowned Prof.

Rosemary Joyce. These talks then followed by an excellent panel discussion led by Alex. The panel

featured Genna Bard (HES), Dr. Alex Fitzpatrick (@ArchaeologyFitz), Dr. Penelope Foreman and Nathan Klembarav (@QueerArch). The conversation felt welcoming to all those attending the event, as the panel and the worldwide audience shared their experiences. Resources were shared and attendees praised the organization of a free and accessible event solely dedicated to the topic. We are really proud of Alex for bringing this event to fruition, and I cannot wait to the see the success of its continuation in the future.

some more fieldwork and volunteering opportunities before summer!

So, once again our fabulous Archaeology Society had another very busy semester. I want to say a big thank you to all our amazing members, who are such a lovely bunch of people from all subject areas. We have worked hard to provide you with a range of varied, accessible, and completely free (aside from SSASC) events with the purchase of your membership. Coming from state school background, I haven’t always felt I belong at university. For me, Archsoc changed that and has always been about creating an accessible community for everybody. I really hope we have delivered that for you this year and thank you for letting me be a part of it.

A big thank you to our HCA Undergraduate Representative and History Soc President Scarlett, who organized another HCA Pub Quiz Showdown in March, this time with staff included. Scarlett done an excellent job getting us together, and a big congratulations to Modernist Historians on their win!

I want to say a final thank you to our Archsoc Committee 2022/23: Darcey Spenner, Patricía Hromadová, John Strachan, Alex Strauss-Jones, Ross Dempster, Claudette Day, and Grayson Thomas.

Thank you also to our Ordinary Officers Hannah Braniff, Hannah Boyd, Ross Morrison, Elizabeth Brown, Emma Nagle, Kellian Coste, Natalie Bryan and Julius Elleby.

Our annual Women in Heritage event also made an appearance in March for International Women’s Day. The online event started with a keynote speech

by Dr. Amara Thornton on the Notability Project, followed by EAFS’s own Norah Carlin on the Witch Persecutions of Corstorphine. We then followed with another (you guessed it) panel discussion!

Our panelists Gill Campbell, Kirstin Halliday, Dr. Lindsey Büster and Loretta Mordi provided some great insight into the work of women and non-binary people in the archaeology and heritage sectors. They shared advice, and once again this event evoked a sense of community, support, and encouragement for those attending, no matter the stage in their carer.

A big thank you to our Secretary, Darcey, for her help in running this event.

Finally, a big congratulations to next year’s committee: Darcey Spenner (President), John Strachan (Secretary), Ross Dempster (Treasurer), Kara Bohn (Publicity Officer), Elizabeth Coleman (Academic Events Officer), Johnathan Collar (Dig Chief), Jasmine Khelil (Dig Chief), Sofía del Real (Social Secretary), Hollie Sinclair (Equality and Inclusion Officer) and Elizabeth Brown (Ordinary Officer). I cannot wait to see what you do next year!

Becky Underwood Archaeology Society President 2021-2022

Our final big event was held on the 1st of April (not a joke, I promise) at the Playfaif Library. Our second Fieldwork Fair, organized by Darcey and Claudette, gave our members the chance to mingle amongst stalls and network with a range of professionals in the archaeology sector. This was a great chance to finally meet some of the people we work with in person and gave students a chance to find out about

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Classics Society This year the Classics Society has come back swinging after a year of lockdowns. Once again we were able to provide a whole set of activities for our members, including movie nights, coffee mornings, and our famous toga party. This year we also did some trips within Scotland, such as our day visiting the National Museum and a trip to Glasgow where we visited the Hunterian and Kelvingrove. In the next year we hope to once again have our popular Hadrian’s Ball and international trip back up and running.

of our society members by hosting our bi-weekly coffee mornings for light academic conversation (and a lot of general gossiping!) as well as a talk by current postgrads and the university Grad team to aid any students wishing to apply for further study.

Thanks to our lovely social secretaries, we also have established our very own Discord server for group study sessions for all year groups and fourth year dissertation specific meetups.

Thanks to collaborations with other university societies and great efforts from our own committee members, EVCS has also marked Islamophobia Awareness Month, Black History Month, Disability History Month and LGBTQIA+ History Month with social media campaigns (follow us @edclassicssoc!) to further awareness and information as education is the first step to making change. We also hosted lectures on accessibility to Classics and Ancient History by Dr Molly Jones Lewis, Dr Mathura Umachandran on white fragility in the field and queer terminology in Greek literature by one of our very own MScR students Tom Chambers. We hope to continue to mark these important events in the coming years.

We are very proud to have the Literacy through Latin programme back in the classroom again this year. This is our outreach programme, where we go to Edinburgh state schools to teach a programme of Latin, and through this introduce kids to the language and the ancient world in a fun way. As President I would like to say a massive thank you to our Charities Officer, Issy Chasey, for her hard work this year, without her none of this would have been possible. I would also like to thank the large number of volunteers who dedicated hours of their own time going into schools and teaching the kids! The kids love it and it makes a big difference.

Our new website, tribuneoftheplebs.org, was also released this year, offering a new format for students and staff to engage with the society and the wider field. If you ever want to write an article about your experiences in Classics, or about the field more widely, be sure to get in touch with us at edclassicssoc@ gmail.com.

Aside from our academic events, despite Covid issues we managed to put on a great selection of events throughout the year including pub nights, a Doodles pottery painting exam de-stress, an Ides of March(mont) pub and flat crawl, a Christmas market trip and countless meet-ups in between. If you’d like to come along and make some friends or talk all things classical, follow our socials to keep up to date with our events- all are welcome regardless of degree <3

Classics Society has hosted a great series of academic events this year in-person with the triumphant return of our ‘An Evening With…’ lecture series. From Greek poetry to Old Testament bestiary, the wide range of speakers from the department on a huge range of topics were enlightening and entertaining for all who attended. Some particular highlights were: • Dr Alex Imrie’s talk, ‘“Let no one escape the destruction”: the Severan invasion of Northern Britain, 208- 11 CE’ • Dr Chiara Blanco’s lecture on understanding Ovid’s Narcissus through the lens of lethargus and furor • Dr Lucy Grig’s talk on her current research, ‘Looking for the History of Popular Culture in the Ancient World’ Join us next year for more academic talks by both the lecturers in the HCA and further afield.

We also managed to further enhance the studies

Thank you to everyone on the committee for their hard work this year and good luck to the incoming committee, headed by our new president, George Ross. We look forward to seeing how the society continues to grow next year!

Charlie Hodgson Classics Society President 2021-22

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Hellenization in the Near East

By Alex Smith When scholars of the ancient world traditionally described the process of Hellenization, or ‘becoming Greek’, it was typically seen as a top-down process.

The spread of Greek culture, government and religion was portrayed as being imposed by Greek overlords on captive states. In reality, Hellenization was far more complicated. The way places were Hellenized varied depending on where the area was, the time period in which it took place, and who was in charge.

Levine defined Hellenization as the adoption and adaption of Greek culture. This article will compare the different ways the populations of Palestine and Egypt were Hellenized between the fourth and first centuries BCE.

third centuries BCE, and in Egypt up until the Roman conquest. Where Hellenization took place, it was often the work of individuals and groups within the local populations to gain status and influence. Locals would sometimes learn Greek and give themselves Greek names, as language was at the heart of the Hellenistic world. As a result, it was sometimes difficult to determine whether a person was Jewish, Egyptian, or Greek. Greek was the language of the administration and only those who could speak it could hold official positions. It was also often needed in society. Whilst not going out of their way to see their culture as superior, and not attempting to directly Hellenize the Egyptians, the Greeks did take advantage of the local populations to implement their rule. When they could, the Ptolemies favoured Greeks in their administration. Whilst there was not a ‘racial policy’, there were discriminatory boundaries in play. This can be seen in Zenon Papyri no.66, where the writer complains that he is not being paid fairly because he is a ‘barbarian’ and cannot speak Greek.

Alexander the Great had conquered the regions of Palestine and Egypt in 333-332 BCE. After Alexander’s death, his generals vied for succession in what became known as the Wars of the Diadochi.

By the end, Ptolemy I Soter had gained control of Egypt and Palestine. His family would rule Palestine until 198 BCE and Egypt until 30 BCE. As a result of his rule, Jews and Egyptians had been brought into the Greek speaking world, but Hellenization would take place differently in the two different regions.

By the first century BCE, some Egyptians had risen to positions of authority by adapting to Greek culture. An example of this Hellenization in Egypt after Alexander’s conquest was the cult that Ptolemy I formed, called the cult of Serapis and Isis. It contained both Greek and Egyptian religious elements, with Serapis reflecting both Osiris as well as Zeus and Hades. It helped solidify his power over the Egyptians and reflected Alexander the Great’s relationship with Zeus-Ammon. The cult may have had links to the worship of the Apis bull, which was already associated with both Egyptian and Greek religion.

The level of Hellenization in Palestine before Alexander is hard to identify. Martin Hengel used an account of a meeting in Asia Minor between Aristotle and a Jewish man who could speak Greek and understood Greek culture as evidence for Hellenization in Judaea. However, this Jewish man had reportedly spent a lot of time in the Greek states of Asia Minor so, if the story is true, it is the account of a single Jewish man in an area who had been Hellenized for a long time and is not reflective of Jewish culture in Palestine. Whilst a few Greek coins have been found in Palestine that date from before the fourth century BCE, these are rare and do not reflect a significant level of Hellenization. Hellenization in Egypt was different. The Greeks had been aware of Egypt for a long time and had supported some elite Egyptian families in their revolt against the Persians.

But this was as far as Greek influence had gone in Egypt and there was very little Hellenization in the region before Alexander’s conquest.

Both Hengel and Millar have argued that the Greeks never had the intention to fuse local cultures with their own and change the ordinary people to become more Greek. They simply wanted to stay in power.

This was true in both Palestine in the fourth and

Another way in which many Jews encountered Hellenization in the third century BCE was through the army. Many served as mercenaries to the Ptolemies and were settled on estates in Egypt. This number was increased after Ptolemy I Soter captured Jerusalem circa 302 BCE and brought 30,000 Jews back to Egypt for his army. They would have been Hellenized quickly as they were spread amongst other troops. This is evidenced by the fact that only twenty-five percent of the names of the settlers that we have in manuscripts are Semitic, the others being Greek, and with a few being both.

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There was already a large Jewish diaspora community in Egypt before Alexander’s conquest, and this increased during the time of the Ptolemies. There was

Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | Hellenization in the Near East a particularly large community in Alexandria which affected the Jewish population throughout Egypt.

The Alexandrian Jews were strongly Hellenized. This can be seen through the creation of the Septuagint, a Greek translation of Hebrew scriptures, and the Jews’ subsequent abandonment of Hebrew. There is evidence that by the second century BCE there were Jews in the highest levels of society. In 2 Maccabees, a Jew called Aristobulus reportedly taught Pharoah Ptolemy VI Philometor and had a role in his court.

Similar knowledge on the innerworkings of royal life was held by the author of The Letter to Aristeas. It is impossible to know how many Jews rose through the social ranks, but it was possible to do so.

rose to power on the back of an anti-Greek revolt yet did more to Hellenize Judaea than any had before.

For example, the Hasmonean Palaces in Jericho contain many Hellenistic elements and examples of Greek art, such as Doric capitals and colonnades, tricliniums, and hot baths; yet, they also included Jewish ritual baths and local pottery because of purity concerns. The Hasmoneans consciously accepted Hellenistic influences whilst maintaining their Jewish distinctiveness. 1 Maccabees emphasises how the Hasmoneans regularly got involved in Seleucid politics and Jonathan received valuable gifts after he successfully supported Demetrius I’s bid for the throne. He was given a purple robe and golden crown, representing his friendship with the Seleucids and a Hellenistic priestly role.

Hellenization in Palestine started off as reflective of that in Egypt. Like the Egyptians, the Jewish population had to learn Greek if they did not want to remain at the bottom of the social ladder. The Yehud coins demonstrate Jewish leaders becoming more Hellenized in the third century BCE in order to gain power from their Greek overlords. They were likely struck in Jerusalem and suggest the existence of a mint there. The Hellenistic coins no longer bore the name of the governor, meaning that it is likely that the mints were instead controlled by the Jewish high priests. This is supported by the fact that whilst bearing Hellenistic iconography, the coins were also inscribed with paleo-Hebrew myths.

After the Hasmoneans, Herod the Great reigned over Judea and Palestine. He initiated a large building plan, both to consolidate his position at home and to fill the eastern power vacuum filled by the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra. His magnum opus was his rebuilding of the Second Temple. However, he also built many Greco-Roman buildings, including an amphitheatre, theatre, and hippodrome in Jerusalem, and a building that was both a theatre and a hippodrome in Jericho. Herod’s rule is perhaps the clearest example of a top-down cultural exchange.

After spending time in Rome and the rest of the Empire, he imposed his Hellenistic vision on Judaea.

The Maccabean revolt complicated the Hellenization of Judaea and Palestine. There were rebellions in Egypt, but these did not have the same effect on Hellenization as the Maccabean revolt. The first of the Hasmonean kings, Aristobulus was known as a philhellēn, a friend of the Greeks who was willing to engage with their culture. However, he also destroyed many Hellenistic cities and forced some Gentiles to convert to Judaism. He is representative of the Hasmonean paradox, in which the dynasty

As can be seen throughout Egypt and Palestine, Hellenization varied depending on who was in charge and how they related to those around them.

If the Greeks were in charge, then Hellenization was often the result of the local people wanting their favour and culture organically changed. However, if members of the local population were in charge, they often forced those around them to Hellenize.

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Silence is Golden (especially if you need to kill an emperor): Ancient Conspiracy Theory and the Use of Silence as a Literary Device

By Molly McDowell Ancient conspiracy theory and its conceptualisation is a relatively new field of classical research. In recent years, the combination of sociological and historical theories has melded to reframe how various ancient accounts of political coup d’état and schemes to depose Roman emperors are investigated due to the association with conspiracy. Such analysis often suggests that the available ancient literature must be considered as distinctly literary works with their own artistic or aesthetic agenda rather than strictly historical evidence, although they certainly still hold value in this regard. As a result, lack of communication and silence is a key literary device in the conception of conspiracy. In narrating conspiracy, ancient sources ensure that the chain of events are neatly contained in order to maintain authorial authority, with silence both aiding the conspiracy and often hindering its progress. The role of women and slaves in uncovering secretive conspiracies due to their duplicitous relationships towards the men involved, only seek to further portray the ancient evidence as intrinsically conspiratorial. To further elucidate the theme in relation to communication and conflict, this article will use the plot to assassinate the Roman emperor Caligula on 24th January 41 CE as a case study.

why, despite the ubiquity of conspiracy in antiquity, the plots themselves are difficult to recount. Every account of conspiracy battles this element to create what can be deemed an authoritative version of the story, despite the lack of known details. The ability to persuade audiences that they are correct is where conspiracy narratives become akin to the Homeric show pieces of oral history; more literary inventions based on historical events which showcase the author’s skill in narration than actual historical accounts. This does do not detract from their usefulness in a historical sense, but merely highlights caution must be employed in their use. One could, in fact, argue that their literary aspirations make them more interesting to scholars; in more recent years, analysis has begun to uncover these sophisticated devices leading to the discovery of ring composition in Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars. Furthermore, the issue in framing any form of conspiracy is that one is dealing with more implicit than explicit information.

As a result, only possible scenarios can be produced rather than verifiable facts. The “degenerating research” associated with studying conspiracy means that an interpretation of the information, or perhaps a framework to model events, is the end result.

What is known in modern vernacular as “conspiracy theory” in antiquity, is based entirely in silence.

The term itself is a modern invention and as such excluded from the Roman vocabulary. Despite the risk of anachronism, it is useful to explain the general conception of coup d’état and conspiracy in ancient sources. Ancient conspiracy theory is the prerogative of the elite classes, unlike more modern ideas of conspiracy as a fringe endeavour, and the techniques used by the ancient authors to conceptualise this are the same. Suspicion and intrigue are inherent to Roman literary sources for a variety of reasons, but often coupled with the criticism of emperors deemed to be “bad” such as the maniacal Caligula who famously preferred slow executions so that his victims may feel their deaths and made his horse a senator.

Secrecy is also integral to the success of any plot, but this is the greatest problem with investigating conspiracy: silence opposes exposition. The covert elements of plotting fundamentally disrupt the res publica by the nature of the very act being private.

Silence creates difficulties in reconstructing events even after they have been discovered, hindering communication. Authors often rely on entirely fictionalised elements in order to recount events, which hampers the use of these as sources for historical fact without further analysis by modern historians. Ancient preoccupation with supernatural phenomena to illustrate what is fated and the similarity of various assassination attempts (usually finding their foundation in that of Julius Caesar) are clear examples of why ancient authors must be handled with care, especially where conspiracy is concerned. The influence of Caesar’s assassination is evident in that of Caligula who is reportedly stabbed up to 30 times by multiple assailants and in a feat of dramatically ironic mistaken identity, Caesar’s assassin Cassius’ descendent is removed because of

Silence is an important literary device for authors, used to accelerate and obstruct their narratives as needed, creating hermeneutic tension in their plot lines and increasing the element of mystery. This is

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Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | Ancient Conspiracy Theory the consultation of an oracle, despite him being the wrong Cassius. The ability to corroborate broadly similar features of different accounts of the same plot, must be utilised to ensure the greatest degree of accuracy in the investigation of the conspiracy in antiquity.

This is the main issue of using silence - impracticality.

In any conspiracy, predicated on secrecy, the sources must employ silence as a literary tool to affect the narrative account they present through both advancement and obstruction. In retellings of plots, it is clear to the reader that silence is essential to the success of the events but also a great hinderance simultaneously. In terms of the assassination of Caligula, Josephus’ Jewish Antiquities is where this is noted in its greatest extent. So many people were aware of the plot by its enacting (sixteen explicitly named characters and countless others that remained anonymous) that the constant fear was revelation, and the appropriate punishment treason would warrant. In contrast, recruitment in the initial stages of the conspiracy had been difficult due not only to the need for concealment but also to the lack of communication between the conspirators which led to further delays to the action.

Silence undermined the public sphere of civic life in Rome, with the role of women and slaves in the discovery of secrecy further subverting Roman elite male social norms and furthering the underground nature of conspiracy. Using Josephus’ account of the

Illustration by Ruby Tait 11

assassination of Caligula, the presentation of Quintilia is a neat encapsulation of the dangers of silence in ancient sources, especially where female or lowerclass characters are concerned. The actress Quintilia provides a moral comment on those involved in the conspiracy to assassinate Caligula, as well as a rare unidealized moralistic female character, who catalyses the attempt on the emperor’s life. As with many parts of Josephus’ highly detailed narrative, Quintilia’s torture is an event held without the knowledge or presence of the public and yet Josephus narrates the grisly affair as though he were present.

This conforms to the narration of conspiracy theory in Roman literature with the inclusion of a woman privy to the plot due to an intimate relationship with a conspirator, whilst also demonstrating the need for the fictionalising of conspiracy narratives to make up for the deficit left by the obstruction of silence.

To conclude, recent forays into the creation of a model for conspiracy theory for ancient Rome have prompted the re-evaluation of ancient sources.

Previously deemed purely historical, these clearly have greater literary purposes in which the utilisation of literary devices such as silence provide attempts to narrate conflict as a secretive endeavour. The need to create an authoritative version of the events is the main aim of the authors, and in doing so the fictionalisation of the plots due to the necessity of lack of exposition creates problems for historians wishing to use these as simplistic historical accounts. Thus, silence hinders the portrayal of conspiracy in Roman sources. The issue of recruitment and possibility of discovery likewise present problems. However, silence and secrecy are essential to the success of any conspiracy. Ancient sources attempt to balance these extremes through the introduction of female or slave characters who are able to straddle the line of exposition due to their dual relationship to the men machinating, furthering the shock factor of conspiracy in ancient times and as seen by the conspiracy to assassinate Caligula in key accounts such as that of Josephus.

Authors and Amicitia: Women and Letter Writing in Late Antiquity

By Susie Hutchinson The main body of evidence for the lives and education of aristocratic women in Late Antiquity comes from literary sources: namely letters and hagiography.

Typically, only male responses to letters are recorded, and each example of hagiography has a male author.

Constructing the world of women is complicated further by the polemic and rhetorical nature of the literature.

further, support for education and intellectuality waivered in the opinion of church fathers. His ideals on education are similarly echoed later with his letter to Paula the Elder’s daughter-in-law, Laeta, on the education of her consecrated daughter Paula the Younger. Laeta is encouraged to teach Paula to learn to read from an early age, setting a passage of Scripture for her every day. Jerome prescribes the Psalms, proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Job, the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, the Prophets and the Heptateuch, books of Kings and Chronicles, the rolls of Ezra and Esther, then Song of Songs for her to learn. He asks that Paula should read Cyprian’s writings, Athanasius’ letters, and Hilary’s works critically. Again, however, Jerome discourages certain literature, here the apocryphal books.

There is strong evidence for the opportunity for women to be highly educated and apply intellect in letters, hagiographic texts, and the case of Proba’s Cento. Letter culture was prominent in Late Antiquity.

Aristocratic webs of patronage and friendship, amicitia, continued through Christianity, and is made particularly evident through the act of letter writing.

Unfortunately, nearly all the letters that survive are male responses, and therefore the voices of the women themselves are lacking. Nonetheless, we can still analyse these letters and their requests for advice on education and intellectual debate on scripture. The provision of these materials suggests that women had access to a religious education and conversing with such prominent church fathers suggests a level of acceptance for this learning. Women also had the opportunity to utilise their education to participate in intellectual discussions. This correspondence shows women were not just reading, but were also engaging in religious debate and discourse.

St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Jerome, along with others, were in correspondence with some of the most elite aristocratic women known to us. Jerome corresponded with aristocratic women such as Marcella (325-410), Paula the Elder (347-404), her daughter Eustochium (c. 368-419), her daughter-inlaw Laeta (c. 375-before 419), and Laeta’s daughter Paula the Younger (born c. 400). Eustochium began life in Rome and chose to reject marriage and remain a virgin, following her mother’s chaste example.

Writing to her in 384, Jerome instructs her on the proper education of a virgin and encourages her Scriptural learning: ‘spend much of your time reading and learn as much as possible’. He recommends the Gospels and commentaries and theology from Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, and verse and prose by Pope Damascus. The scope of reading material is therefore quite large. Jerome does, however, discourage her from appearing too intelligent or from reading classical works such as Horace. Despite a wide range of scripture being available and intellectuality being praised as a virtue in other women, as I will discuss

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There is also evidence to suggest that women read scripture, requesting analysis from church fathers, and that they engaged intellectually with them. Marcella, who remained in Rome as a widow after only seven months, had a significant amount of correspondence with Jerome. Through Jerome’s letters we find she requested copies of commentaries from other bishops on the Song of Songs, asked questions about specific phrasing of Psalms, explanations of untranslated Hebrew words and names, and rigorously interrogated Scripture, theology and divinity. Augustine too wrote to elite women, with a focus on the late antique Anician women: Proba, her daughter-in-law Anicia Juliana and Juliana’s daughter Demetrias. His letters to women focus more on responses to requests for treatise and materials. Proba wrote to Augustine requesting a treatise on the subject of prayer for widows. Proba is clearly well-read as she is described as understanding Christian philosophy surrounding the soul. As I will discuss, Proba’s Christian education is most visibly demonstrated in her Cento. Augustine addressed the work De Bono Viduitatis to Juliana, a treatise on the profession of widowhood. Closing the work, Augustine describes the volume of scripture Demetrias can read along with the hint of deeper scriptural analysis he has given her before. It is clear, therefore, that Christianity provided an arena within which women could become literary experts, as the material they read was sanctified by God. Although material was circumscribed by church fathers, and therefore the opportunity for education and intellect curtailed, some have suggested that this reflects their anxieties that women were reading material they were not supposed to have access to. Augustine

Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | Late Antique Letter Writing writes to Juliana fearful that Demetrias had received the hieratical Origenist work On First Principles, and furthermore, that she had requested the material.

While it is unclear whether she or Demetrias did read Origen’s works, Augustine’s letter reveals they had the potential to access the literature if they wanted to. Therefore, it seems that women did indeed have many opportunities and an element of choice regarding the material they wished to study.

Women were encouraged to read, and letter exchanges reveal that women could debate Scripture privately. The textual community in Late Antiquity grew significantly, after emerging in Rome in 382, and women appeared frequently as patrons of literature. Literary patronage is a key example in understanding the power women held in their ability to choose what they were patrons of. The relationship of literary patronage was dual-natured, with patrons supporting and consuming the work they wished to have so that writers could continue to be literary producers, and thus finically and socially supported.

Letters in Late Antiquity were designed to be published, and if they were addressed to certain women their names would be read by all, giving them publicity and honour as patrons of the work.

For example, Augustine’s treatise on the prayer of widows is dedicated to Juliana at her personal

request. Jerome’s hagiography of Marcella was written at the request of Principia. It is unclear whether these women were their patrons, but it certainly highlights a level of closeness that may have included patronage as they respond to these requests. Paula the Elder is named by Palladius as Jerome’s patron. He addressed Letters 30, 33, and 39 to her, explaining various Scripture she seems to have had questions on. Furthermore, he dedicated several of his commentaries to her. Marcella, Eustochium, and Paula are addressed in his commentaries on Daniel, Ephesians, Ezekiel, Galatians, Haggai, Isaiah, Micah, Philemon, and Titus. His vulgate translations of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, The Books of Samuel and Kings, Esther, Isiah, Daniel, the Twelve minor Prophets Book of Job, a revised version of Psalms, and Books of Solomon are all dedicated to Paula and Eustochium. Haines-Eitzen argues that the questioning of Jerome’s work and his extensive literary relationships with certain women suggests that these dedications are not simply honorific. I agree with this, as the dedication of his commentary on Psalms suggests that the revision of his translation was done at the request of Paula and Eustochium, and therefore there is evidence for the relationship of patronage alongside Palladius’ description.

Furthermore, Jerome accepted women as patrons of literature. He refers his friends to Marcella and Fabiola as people from whom theological books can be borrowed. To conclude that Jerome and these women engaged in a relationship of patronage, with them able to request theological material and him able to produce it, seems very likely.

As Salzman has argued, these Christian women could gain prestige through their patronage of Christian writers and theologians, giving them influence on the intellectual life of the Roman West. Through the study of Christian scripture, as attested in these letters, women had the opportunity to be part of the intelligentsia. The volume of work dedicated to women, along with evidence that they supported individual church fathers in their endeavours, suggests that women had opportunity to be patrons to a great extent under Christianity, and that they had freedom to request what work they wanted out of that relationship.

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‘Unreliable Barbarians’: How Language Contributed to Cultural Conflict in Late Medieval Scotland

By Alice Goodwin Gaelic society and culture in late medieval Scotland were comprised of a complex system of lordships, languages, and identities, built over hundreds of years and assigned various ethnic labels before Gaelic.

The changes that are observed in the associations of Gaelic culture and society with barbarity and political unreliability are external judgements brought about by attempts to distinguish the English, and later the Lowlanders, from the Gaels. Accusations of political unreliability are largely rooted in the familial rivalries which occurred in the Lordship of the Isles during the later medieval period, with violent in-fighting and frequent shifts in power fuelling observers to class Gaelic society as politically unreliable.

Concepts of barbarity were continually evolving throughout the Middle Ages, and yet the accusation of Gaelic barbarity occurred at every point of its linguistic evolution, showing the continued need for neighbours to the south to differentiate themselves from the Gaelic society in the north. This was exemplified in the Highland/Lowland distinction which was prominent by the end of the fourteenth century, allowing the newly emerged ‘Scots’ of the Lowlands to associate themselves with the civilisation of the English by creating a geographical and societal divide. In doing so it is clear that associations of barbarity and political unreliability assigned to Gaelic culture and society provide insights about those perpetuating the judgment, rather than showing a reflection of Gaelic society itself, displaying the wish of the ‘accusers’, whether English or Lowlanders, to distance themselves from what they judged to be undesirable traits possessed by Gaels.

The late medieval period is typically characterised as beginning with the Anglo-Norman invasion and ending in the early sixteenth century with the Nine Years War, although this is a significantly Anglicised picture of the period which also includes significant change for Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Throughout the early medieval period, and before the formation of a ‘Kingdom of the Scots’, there were numerous ethnic groups living in the north of Britain, each establishing dominance at different points, including the Picts, the Gaels of Dál Riata, Angles, Britons, and the Vikings. Following the conquest of the eleventh century and the Anglicisation of parts of southern Scotland, Gaelic society and culture was spotlighted as a barbaric corner in what was becoming a progressively civilised island, at least in the eyes of the English. The Scottish Gaelic identity

at this point was emerging as distinct from that of Ireland, with the languages growing apart and a new separate consciousness as the Gaels of Scotland developing, along with unmistakable differences in art and appearance. It remained the case in the later medieval period that Scotland contained an array of languages and ethnicities, including variations on Celtic, Scandinavian, and English language, and yet a seeming dichotomy emerged between Gaelic culture and society and that of the developing Scottish nation in the south of the country. Perhaps because the two most prominent cultures were those of the Gaels and the new Scots south of the Forth, they were pitted against each other, at least in the eyes of the Lowlanders. For at this time the notion of the nation was appearing, and it may be the case that the Scots were attempting to assert their culture and society as the dominant and most civilised – and, as such, the proper culture of Scotland.

Associations between Gaelic society and barbarism were not new to the later Middle Ages, as the term had been used to describe inhabitants of northern Britain for centuries, although the use of the word had significantly changed since late Antiquity when Roman authors were commenting on the Picts or the ‘wild Scots.’ Previously meaning pagan, or a nonreligious person, Romans were able to assign the label of barbarian to groups and in doing so assert their superiority and justify intervention on behalf of the Church. However, as Christianity spread and there were fewer pagan groups, the use of ‘barbarian’ changed, now coming to mean peoples living in a way deemed to be sub-Christian, even if they believed in the Christian God. Adapting the meaning of the word allowed for societies to express their superiority over others, as it is only through the self-identification of one culture as civilised that the image of the barbarian is created. Accounts of those living in the north of Scotland are seemingly consistent throughout history, with Solinus in the third century describing the Scots as ‘rough and warlike with barbaric customs,’ and both the Scots and Picts characterised as ‘savage tribes’ by Ammianus Marcellinus in 360.

External perceptions of northern British society, including those of the Picts, the Scots, and the Gaels can be seen to change little throughout the centuries preceding the period in question, and associations with barbarism and political unreliability were already well-established by the end of the twelfth century. The consistency of writings on the Scots and

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Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | Late Medieval Cultural Conflict Gaels suggest that judgements were merely being repeated throughout the Middle Ages, rather than new perspectives sought and opinions reconsidered.

This encourages the question of whether associations between Gaelic culture and society actually increased during the later medieval period, or whether they were just repeated more often.

The understanding of the idea of barbarity had grown by the later Middle Ages to encompass cultural judgements, although religion was still a major factor in the concept of barbarianism, which now featured an emphasis on ‘ungodliness’, with observers determining that the behaviour of the Gaels, their savagery and ignorance of proper Christian action was not sufficiently godly and required intervention.

Such traits are highlighted by Gerald of Wales, writing in the late twelfth century, using the example of Gilbert of Galloway who, in his bid for rule of Galloway, had blinded and murdered his halfbrother, assuming rule in 1174. Perceptions of Scots as barbarians were so pervasive that chroniclers quoted from one another the descriptions of Scottish cruelty throughout the invasion of 1173, none doubting the credibility of such accusations for the image of the savage Scot were at this point entrenched in English opinion. In distancing themselves from their Scottish neighbours in this way, the English were asserting their superiority, which they also employed when discussing Wales and Ireland. The grouping together of the Celtic communities – as the fringes of civilised Europe - ensured that England was considered culturally closer with the rest of Europe than their unruly neighbours. Increasing associations of Gaelic culture with barbarity was in this way not confined to Scots Gaelic, with perceptions of the Irish lords, especially during the Gaelic Resurgence of the fourteenth century, also increasingly fitting with the narrative of civilisation vs barbarism.

By the late thirteenth century, the Highland/ Lowland distinction had emerged, intending to separate Gaelic culture and society from the more anglicised Scots in the Lowlands. This accompanied the changing use of ‘Scots’, which was now used to refer to the Lowlanders, with those living in the Highlands branded as ‘wild Scots’ or ‘Irish’, at a time when the kingdom of Scotland had emerged, meaning that residents were now considered a more homogeneous group than they had been in previous centuries. This concept distressed the Scots in the south, who wished to separate themselves from the Gaels in the north, and remove the associations between all Scots and barbarity, instead shifting the

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judgement of wild and barbaric onto the Gaelic Scots in the north and west of the country, and in doing so creating distinctions of Lowlander and Highlander.

These labels functioned very similarly to those of civilisation and barbarity, with Lowlanders seeking to show their superiority to Highlands and ensure that they were not grouped together with the Gaels of the Highlands by those in England or Europe. There is also a geographical element to these labels, with the landscape of the Highlands being unsuitable for the agriculture practiced in the Lowlands, contributing to ideas of Highlanders as unwilling to work and occupied with their feasting and fighting, in contrast to the Lowlanders who had complex agricultural and societal systems in place. In drawing identities based both on perceived ethnicity and geography, Lowlanders created a penetrating cultural system that survived many centuries and caused much animosity between the groups, succeeding in stirring up prejudice towards the Highlanders, and in doing so, reducing associations between themselves and Gaelic culture and society.

To conclude, the associations of Gaelic culture and society with barbarism and political unreliability throughout the later Middle Ages have very little to do with the substance of Gaelic society itself, instead being the work of observers seeking to separate themselves from what they perceived to be the flaws of the Gaels. Ideas of political unreliability within Gaelic society in this period are often attributed to the violence and instability of the Lordship of the Isles, which in itself is a selective view and cherrypicks aspects which are perceived to be barbaric to an outsider. Associating the Scottish with barbarism was not new in the later medieval period, and yet the associations grew through the deliberate escalation of the English and the Lowlanders. The English sought to separate themselves from their Celtic neighbours throughout this time, envisioning their place as the civilised society surrounded by barbarians, with the contrast only emphasising their superiority. This mindset was also adopted by the new Lowlanders of Scotland, with their anglicised culture and society being pitted against Gaelic culture and society, highlighting Gaelic barbarity and political unreliability in order to align themselves with the civilised English. In drawing upon wellestablished ideas of the ‘wild Scot’, Lowlanders were able to continue the narrative of the barbarians in the north of Britain, only now excluding themselves and characterising Scotland as a country of two halves, one half civilised and the other barbarous.

“As long as life endures”: Revisiting the Evidence of Catherine Howard’s Guilt

By Naomi Wallace Content Warning: This piece includes discussions of sexual violence On the eve of 13 February 1542, Catherine Howard, imprisoned within the walls of the Tower of London, sentenced to die on charges of high treason, had a final tragic request: she asked that the execution block be brought to her chamber for her to practice lying her head upon. The following morning, at no more than twenty years old, she met her death swiftly and with dignity. And so, we get the second wife of Henry VIII to be beheaded.

Six years prior, another Queen of England, the second wife of Henry VIII, stood on the scaffold convicted of treason. But while it is widely acknowledged that Anne Boleyn was falsely accused, Catherine Howard rarely receives the same sympathy. She is remembered as simply the foolish young wife of Henry VIII, whose impulsiveness and promiscuity were her death sentence. Tracy Borman cruelly branded her an ‘archdeceiver with morals of a whore’, and many agree that she was responsible for her fate. This article aims to challenge such perceptions of Catherine and offer alternative interpretations of the evidence brought against her.

In November 1541, not eighteen months after becoming Queen, Catherine Howard was accused of having sexual relations with two men before her marriage to the King; Henry Mannox and Francis Dereham, both of whom she had known whilst living in the household of the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk.

Catherine confessed to having had carnal relations with them, however in her final confession she asserted that she had been sexually assaulted, which could very well be the truth given that both men were significantly older. Mannox had been her music teacher and abused her as an early teenager, and she stated in her confession that she ‘suffered him… to handle and touch the secret parts of my body, which neither became me with honesty for me to permit or for him to require.’ Equally, she claimed that Dereham had ‘procured [her] to his vicious purpose.’ Henry was furious that his innocent teenage bride, his ‘rose without a thorn,’ had a less than innocent past.

When Dereham was interrogated, however, a graver allegation emerged - that the Queen had engaged in an adulterous affair with a courtier and gentleman of the Privy Chamber, Thomas Culpepper.

The liaison between Culpepper and the Queen allegedly began on Maundy Thursday 1541, when

Catherine summoned him to her rooms and gifted him a cap, which, as Gareth Russell rightly observes, was ‘a flirtatious gesture’. She later sent food to Culpepper whilst he was sick, and the two met privately, aided

by Jane Rochford, Catherine’s lady in waiting, on multiple occasions during the Court’s 1541 summer progress. Eyewitnesses of illicit meetings between the pair, confessions from Culpepper and Rochford, and a letter written by Catherine herself, were sufficient evidence to condemn them. Catherine’s letter is cited as proof of her love for Culpepper; but with a closer look, we see that it is not the smoking-gun it is often considered to be.

Efforts to date the letter vary; Starkey suggests it was written from Greenwich in the spring of 1541, while some have placed it during the summer progress of the same year. Its usefulness as a source is limited by the fact that it is a piece of evidence untethered to a particular date, and therefore belongs to no definite context. Additionally, it is the only surviving piece of Catherine’s own writing. This again limits its merit, as we have no point of comparison to judge it against her usual tone or vocabulary. It is undeniable that the tone of the letter is overly friendly. Catherine says that ‘it makes [her] heart die to think what fortune I have that I cannot be always in your company,’ and wishes to see him, ‘praying you that you will come when my Lady Rochford is here.’ But while this admittedly does not look good for the Queen, it is not quite the brazen declaration of love that it has been lauded as. Adultery seems a hasty conclusion to jump to when Catherine essentially only says that she wants to speak with Culpepper. The affectionate expression, especially the sign-off ‘yours as long as life endures, Katheryn’ were not unconventional of the time, and therefore must not be judged from a contemporary perspective, in which such doting language would certainly be indicative of romantic desire. Furthermore, it seems unlikely that such conclusions would have been drawn if not for the accusations by which the letter was followed. Perhaps this teleological view has prompted an overstatement of the implications of its content.

Alternative explanations for Catherine’s letter can be offered; the first considers the culture of the Tudor Court. Ladies were expected to engage in a flirtatious yet innocent game of courtly love with male courtiers.

As Queen of England, Catherine needed be desirable

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Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | Catherine Howard’s Guilt and appealing, but off limits to all but the King. As Lady Rochford had told her, ‘You must give men leave to look, for they will look upon you.’ This was murky territory; the downfall of Anne Boleyn had demonstrated all too well how

Thomas Culpepper was a notorious flirt and had numerous mistresses at Court. But gravely, he was accused of raping a park-keeper’s wife and murdering a villager who intervened. This is not evidence of an attractive young man who would

difficult this was to balance. So perhaps Catherine’s ‘flirtatious’ interactions with Culpepper, and the letter, for all its supposedly damning content, could have been a naïve new Queen’s idea of the courtly

cause Catherine to behave ‘like a love-sick Juliet,’ but instead of a dangerous, violent individual. Some have attempted to argue that the accusations were against Culpepper’s elder brother of the same name,

Illustration by Aoife Céitinn

love that the Tudor Court, and her lady in waiting, encouraged. Culpepper’s failure to burn the letter, incredibly foolish as this was, may further imply that it was less intimate than appears. Granted, this is a weaker theory- while Catherine was young and inexperienced, it is difficult to imagine she did not recognise that meeting secretly with Culpepper and professing her desire to see him in writing, crossed the line.

The stronger explanation is far more sinister and requires an understanding of the character of the man with whom Catherine was accused of adultery.

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however records show that the accused received a pardon from the King. This makes it far more likely to have been the Thomas Culpepper linked to Catherine Howard, whose coveted position as groom of the stool would explain such merciful behaviour from Henry.

Seeing Thomas Culpepper for the sexual predator that he was changes our interpretation of Catherine’s letter. Retha Warnicke postulates that Culpepper had learnt of the Queen’s unchaste past and was blackmailing her. Both she and Lucy Worsley believe the letter was Catherine’s attempt to placate a man

Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | Catherine Howard’s Guilt who was forcing himself upon her. Given the evidence of Culpepper’s violent nature, this is a convincing suggestion. After all, the letter is addressed to ‘Master Culpepper,’ which is impersonal and formal, suggesting that passionate love was not at the forefront of Catherine’s mind. Further supporting this theory is the fact that Culpepper likely saw there was a great deal to gain from being in the Queen’s favour. Antonia Fraser suggests that the ruthlessly ambitious Culpepper intended to claim her as his wife after the death of the King, whose health had declined in the early 1540s. It certainly seems possible that Culpepper pursued Catherine with the financial and political benefits of marriage to a former queen in mind. Consequently, Culpepper’s confession that ‘he intended and meant to do ill with the Queen’ is recontextualised. How seriously should we take the words of a man who was evidently a sexual predator?

Considering Catherine herself denied committing adultery, despite confessing to sexual relations with Mannox and Dereham, why are we so quick to believe Culpepper’s words over hers? He may not have intended to ‘do ill’ with her, but this should not necessarily be taken as conclusive evidence that she did with him.

It is less commonly known that Catherine was not officially charged with committing adultery but with the intent to do so, having ‘traitorously held illicit meeting and conference to incite the said Culpepper to have carnal intercourse with her.’ This proves difficult for historians, who tend to disagree on how far the relationship went. Russell does not believe they slept together but argues that they certainly

would have if they had not been caught. Fraser believes that they did not commit adultery only in the crudest sense, suggesting that the pair used coitus interruptus to stop just short of full intercourse.

The issue with both interpretations is that they are speculative; Russell’s conclusion is theoretical, and Fraser ignores the fact that both Catherine and Culpepper denied ever going further than touching hands. Only Jane Rochford attested that she ‘thinks Culpepper has known the Queen carnally,’ but this was her opinion and, as she suffered a nervous breakdown shortly after, her words are not reliable evidence against Catherine.

History persists in its attempts to sort women into dichotomous roles of Madonna or whore, and Catherine Howard has been carelessly tossed into the latter category. She is remembered as a ‘reckless slut’ by historians and the public alike, which is painfully unfair. Ultimately, she was an abused child, and this should be considered when discussing the evidence.

The Tudor Court was an environment in which rumour and scandal ran rife, where someone’s own words could be twisted and manipulated, sending them hurtling towards their death; Catherine Howard is just one of many infamous examples. At some point in 1541, she penned a letter that would be used against her for centuries to follow. Truthfully, we will never know for certain what she hoped to communicate; but when we examine the context in which she was writing, and uncover the true nature of the letter’s recipient, it becomes clear that history has over-enthusiastically jumped to conclusions about Catherine Howard’s guilt.

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The Creation of a Friendship and The Downfall of a Queen: The letters of Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots

By Sophia Aiello In our current age of instantaneous mass communication, it is important to revisit and consider the significance of a very different form of communication, the letter. By its nature and structure, the letter provides an opportunity to capture and exchange reflections and a means for argument and appeal. Letters provide historians with insights into personality, relationships and outcomes that are unlikely to appear in other forms of communication.

To grasp the significance of letter writing and specific letters it is important to place them within their political, social, political and cultural context. This is particularly the case for the letters exchanged between Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I. Historians are attracted to these letters for a number of diverse reasons. This article will focus on the relationship revealed in the letters between Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I of England. These monarchs are of such interest because of their unusual position, as two female monarchs ruling at the same time, who appear to have had a very personable relationship despite never meeting. The letters are also of interest as first person narratives written by members of a unique community of royal women leaders facing death and asking for mercy.

The letters provide insight into the different personalities of the cousins and their respective positions as two Queens Regents living on the same island with a claim to the same throne. The way in which they wrote to each other, especially their choice of language and words reflects the different and evolving approaches these two women employed in seeking to control their changing circumstances.

They show evidence of the shift in the Queens’ attitudes to each other from youthful rivalry and sisterly solidarity to profound confrontation at the end. Without the letters’ primary evidence, historians would have only the testimony of those who knew Mary and Elizabeth and not the actual words of the Queens.

Their correspondence began when Elizabeth referred to Mary politely in the first peace treaty of 1559 signed between France and Scotland. This treaty asserted that Mary was not queen of England. In declaring that Mary was not queen of England, Elizabeth intentionally chose diplomatic language stating her claim to be England’s rightful monarch.

She argued that Mary’s incorrect claim to the throne was not Mary’s fault but ‘that the title to this kingdom

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injuriously pretended in so many ways by the Queen of Scotland has not proceeded otherwise than from the ambitious desire of the principal members of the House of Guise.’ Here she is removing the blame from Mary and putting it on Mary’s uncles. While Elizabeth recognises and respects Mary and her position even in her early letters, rivalry is present.

Elizabeth patronises ‘young’ Mary and Francois, her husband for their error in claiming the title as monarch of England. ‘The King, who by reason of his youth…The Queen of Scots, who is likewise very young…have [not] of themselves imagined and deliberated an enterprise so unjust, unreasonable, and perilous.’

The letters between Mary and Elizabeth became much more frequent following the death of Francois, Mary I’s husband, as several months after his death she made the move back to Scotland. This made Elizabeth more fearful that her throne was under threat as her Catholic cousin and rival was suddenly on her doorstep. In fact, because of Mary’s refusal to ratify the Treaty of Edinburgh, in which Scotland would acknowledge Elizabeth as their queen, Elizabeth refused her cousin a warrant of safe passage through English waters on her return from England to Scotland. The dynamics and complexity of the relationship is captured throughout the exchange of letters. By the early 1560s however, the relationship between Mary and Elizabeth seems to shift to be much more amenable, perhaps even affectionate. Famously Mary once kissed a letter she sent to Elizabeth saying to the English ambassador, ‘I will kiss it also…for her sake it commeth from.’ The letters capture the transformations in the relationship between the two monarchs and provide insights into what is causing the changes.

The relationship seemed to change when Mary got married again, this time to Lord Darnley. Whilst Mary achieved one of her main goals through this marriage, producing an heir, her marriage was miserable, and Mary asked for comfort from Elizabeth to deal with it.

In one such letter Elizabeth wrote a passionate letter to Mary in what she described as a ‘great frankness without any of the usual circumlocutions common in her diplomatic correspondence.’ This letter marks a significant change in their relationship as Elizabeth pointedly avoids formality, urging Mary in extremely direct language to act immediately to preserve her reputation and distance herself from her husband’s

Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | Creation of a Friendship alleged killer, James Hepburn, the Earl of Bothwell.

Madame: My ears have been so deafened and my understanding so grieved and my heart so affrighted to hear the dreadful news of the abominable murder of your mad husband and my killed cousin that I scarcely have the wits to write about it.

In this letter, Elizabeth speaks to Mary directly as her equal, a fellow queen and as a woman. She wants her to defend her honour and in a heartfelt way. In fact, when Mary did not follow Elizabeth’s advice, Elizabeth touchingly wrote to Mary in her French: For the love of God, Madame, use such sincerity and prudence in this matter [the hearing], which touches you so nearly, that all the world may feel justified in believing you innocent of so enormous a crime.

These letters undoubtedly show a great deal of personal affection between the two women by this point.

The tide of their relationship turned once again when Mary married her third husband, James, Earl of Bothwell. While Elizabeth was originally asking for Mary to: ‘be careful how your son the Prince may be preserved, for the comfort of yours and your realm, which two things we have from the beginning always taken to heart…” signing her letter ‘a good neighbour, a dear sister and a faithful friend’.

Mary’s response led to a turning point in the relationship as Mary admits she believes she cannot rule Scotland ‘Destitute of a husband’ and as such

Illustration by Aoife Céitinn

cannot follow the advice of her ‘sister queen’.

Mary’s reign collapsed shortly after as she was captured by rebellious Protestant lords in June 1567 and while Elizabeth told her ambassador to Scotland she wouldn’t not let ‘her [Mary] suffer’ she did not send troops to free Mary or restore her to her throne. Mary was able to escape Loch Leven prison and as soon as she had crossed England she wrote to Elizabeth, urging her to ‘fetch me as soon as you possibly can, for I am in a pitiable condition, not only for a queen, but for a gentlewoman.’

However, Mary’s presence in England was difficult for Elizabeth, as she was a direct claimant to her throne. As such she reacted coolly, stating she would ‘ask assistance of her other allies’. Mary found this response “maddening” and desperation and pleas were layered into her following letters as Elizabeth’s aid was not forthcoming: ‘Good madame, what wrong did I ever [seek] to you or yours in the former part of my reign.’

The relationship deteriorated when Elizabeth’s agents discovered Mary’s involvement in the Babington Plot to assassinate Elizabeth and place Mary on the throne. From this point Elizabeth changed and described Mary as a ‘wicked murderess’. However, she still offered the Queen a way-out, which Mary did not accept. Mary’s last letter to her cousin contains an aggravated plea for her remains to stay in France after her death. She also threatened Elizabeth by stating that her death would outrage all Catholic Europe. She in fact states that her ‘bloody will her remembered’ which seemed to stay with Elizabeth for the rest of her life.

It is impossible to know which of the two Queens ‘won’ their war of letters. If we consider letters alone, Mary won the moral high ground, dying a martyr’s death for her Catholic faith. In terms of their final communications, Elizabeth’s last message to Mary was, ultimately, the death warrant dispatched to Fotheringay Castle on 1 February 1587. Yet even there, Mary appears triumphant through the dignity displayed at her execution and her deliberate casting of herself as a martyr. She managed to redeem herself in the eyes of much of history for her earlier marital problems and failure as a ruler. The letters provide us with the reflections and perspectives of the protagonists. This type of insight is unavailable elsewhere. The letters help us to decide whether Mary was a hopelessly incompetent ruler but the braver, if not more intelligent of the two women or whether Elizabeth was a solitary, lonely figure, yet a masterful politician who is ultimately forced to murder her own cousin to guarantee her own security.

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Print, Propaganda and PR: The English Civil War – An Untold Story.

By Sophie Whitehead The topic of news and propaganda is one which is familiar to all of us today – with the advent of social media facilitating a dissemination of information, it feels like a modern, novel topic. However, this is not the case. With the advent of the printing press in around 1438, information was able to be spread at a greater pace than ever before. The first, most notable example of this dissemination occurred during the Protestant Reformation which started in 1517, in which the Ninety-five Theses were famously printed, translated, and sent out around Europe. The reach of Martin Luther’s theses was of course limited – literacy rates were low across Europe, with only 11% of the population able to sign their own names in 1500. Over a century later, there is evidence of yet another major print propaganda push: the English Civil War. The propaganda of the English Civil War was of a different character yet again. By tracking both who had access to printing presses and who was literate in the year 1650, it is estimated that 53% of the population of what is now the United Kingdom was literate. This meant that print was able to flourish more easily than ever before, due not only to an increase in ease of printing but also due to the growth in the audience toward which it was marketed– when literacy rates and population growth is considered, it is estimated that this audience increased about ten-fold. The English Civil War was the first war of public relations, and it would set the blueprint for the future relationship between the media and those in power. Whilst the print wars of the English Civil War are well studied, this essay shall focus on the parts of the history where the scholarship is sparser: the participation of women within print, and the involvement of non-English neighbours in the propagation of information.

There is a great deal of scholarship on the subject of print propaganda and the English Civil war; some have attributed this increase in focus on print propaganda to the “new historicism”, more focus being placed on historical context, where literary scholars have, if not provided answers, at least shed a light on possible methodologies to analyse the works within their own contexts rather than as timeless truths. However, some scholars, such as Kevin Sharpe, have criticised the field, arguing that ‘the entire notion of an early modern government engaging in propaganda is anachronistic’. However, evidence, as will be discussed later, does point to the idea that propaganda was used as a tool, comparable to the use of swords or cannons or to

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the use of propaganda in wars to this day. There is also a focus on what has been termed the “news revolution”, the idea that the general public over the course of the seventeenth century were becoming increasingly interested in local and national politics.

Newer scholars such as Maayan Rosen have also begun to focus upon the role of women--a previously understudied area of the scholarship--within print, not only as subjects, but also as print makers in their own right.

According to Rosen, the field of scholarship which focuses on women’s work within the print propaganda of the Civil War– which began with Paula McDowell-- focuses on women’s work in shaping the canon of political propaganda. Rosen argues that the Civil War provided the impetus which enabled women to participate, with ‘political conflicts of the century also creat[ing] an opening for women’s participation in printing’, and the number of female printers increasing from fifteen publications a year between 1600 and 1640 to 120 publications a year by 1650 and close to 140 yearly by 1660. The scholarship also looks at women’s involvement within different types of print media. Older historians have tended to focus upon elite women publishing either poetry or religious works, such as in the case of the Duchess of Newcastle, whose ‘self-promotion’ led to her book Poems and Fancies being published by John Martin and James Allestryre in 1656--the most upmarket publisher of the time, according to Jane Stevenson.

However, Stevenson argues that there was a great deal of class conflict in the genera of works published.

Whilst there were those such as the Duchess of Newcastle, there were also tradeswomen using print to financially provide for their families. In spite of discrepancies caused undoubtedly by class barriers in the seventeenth century, the English Civil War provided a fertile breeding ground for women who either wished to--or were, due to their financial circumstances, forced to-- participate within the print industry, both as authors and printers. According to indexes of printers, there were roughly 370 female printers working in the print trade around this time.

However, the participation of women should not be taken to mean any kind of increased equality – many women still published under their husbands’ names, and 60% of the works which women produced were pamphlets, deemed one of the lowest forms of printed literature.

Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | The English Civil War Yet another understudied form of scholarship begins to uncover the use of English Civil War propaganda within the entirety of Great Britain and Ireland rather than, as is the case with much of the studies of the period, a focus on England and more specifically on London and Oxford. This focus is understandable: the English Civil War propaganda would most predominantly be produced in England, with more than 30,000 publications being published in London alone between 1640 and 1660. However, scholars now increasingly look at the involvement of Scots within particularly religious propaganda. Lloyd Bowen studies the ways in which the Royalists mobilised the parish clergy to mobilise support during the “Scottish crisis” of 1639-40. Bethany Marsh has also studied the actions of non-English parties, in this instance Irish Catholics, with regards to the dissemination of false information– fake news, if you will. In her article for History Today, Marsh conducts an in-depth analysis of the false royal commission of 1641 in which Sir Phelim Roe O’Neill of Kinard forged a royal commission claiming to be from the king in support of the claim. Marsh demonstrates that the forgery was not watertight, as parliamentarians would have known from the seal used that it was not genuine; however, this is one of the first examples of fake news being knowingly propagated through print.

Civil War and the involvement of non-English neighbouring parties within print are underresearched areas of scholarship – however, both also appear to be undergoing a scholarly rediscovery.

The increasing role of women in print demonstrates that conflict created an area in which women could participate more freely, though it had its limits.

Participation was still restricted by class, and the proliferation of women in print did not mean equality, with many women still signing their husband’s names on their works. What the study of non-English scholarship does is shift the narrative away from the London and Oxford-centric visions of participation in the propaganda movement of the English Civil War. They both demonstrate that the historiography on Civil War propaganda can be broadened to create a more inclusive narrative and that this more inclusive narrative is a better representation of what propaganda has been, what it is, and what it will be in the future.

Both the involvement of women in print in the

Illustration by Ruby Tait

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Masculinity in Conflict: Desire, Encounter, and Race in Early Modern Travel Literature

By Boryana Ivanova Travel literature written by European men throughout the early modern period has included narratives of sexual desire and gender disorder directed towards non-European women, noting in particular, the presence of Indigenous female bodies, their sexual social practices, and their imagined lasciviousness.

The focus of this paper is to consider the implications of this desire for European men’s masculinity and the ways in which this highlights the boundaries and interconnections of sexuality, gender, race, and manhood in the early modern Atlantic world. As a historically contingent social construction, early modern European masculinity was continuously in transit, relational, and flexible. Therefore, confrontation with colonial travel and sexual feelings of desire towards the native women encountered will have affected how masculinity was personally and socially understood and constructed. In turn, this desire defined non-European women through their ‘overtly sexual’ bodies and through patriarchal European standards of beauty and femininity.

As such, this paper will examine how white European masculinity in the seventeenth century was tensely impacted, conflicted, and constructed through interaction, communication, and thoughts of sexual desire presented towards non-European women, using an analytical focus on Richard Ligon’s A True & Exact History of the Island of Barbados (1657).

Specifically, I will focus on accounts of desire towards African and Amerindian women, as their gender and sexuality were most often discussed by male travellers, such as Ligon. It will ultimately be argued that European masculinity, when confronted with sexualised interaction and desire towards the nonEuropean female body, created new conflicts within the male self and masculine identity. Masculinity was in conflict due to the desire felt for and expressed towards the African and Amerindian women, which reflects the significance and interconnectivity of race, gender, and sexuality upon the white male colonialist masculinity. This text also seeks to highlight the importance of race in masculine sexual identities throughout the early modern Atlantic world. Masculinity cannot be understood without acknowledging its foundations – the racial and gendered oppression and sexual exoticism of African and Amerindian women. The gendered and racial power dynamic inherent in this sexual desire is necessarily and appropriately addressed throughout the text and cannot be isolated from constructions of

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masculine identity.

Analysis of masculinity in connection with racialised sexual desire must not become one-sided or onedimensional, replicating historical power dynamics.

Sensitive considerations of the sexual cultural assumptions discussed and placed upon the women in this historical narrative must therefore be made.

Analyses will be grounded in real social power relations and referenced in relation to patriarchal and racial subjugation. While this paper is about masculinity and desire in the early modern Atlantic world, this should not, and does not, relegate the African and Amerindian women discussed to mere objects or variables which are acted on, with no autonomy or agency. Rather, they are historical subjects in their own right, with their own histories, invariably involved in and a part of this painful formation of manhood through a colonialist identity.

With tropes of savagery, sexual deviancy, and racial ‘otherness’, the women these European men encountered and wrote about were positioned as the antithesis to the display of femininity found within Europe. As such, a degrading image of African and Amerindian women was created based both on their race and gender. European men, and the institution of empire, believed Indigenous women to be ‘wild’ and lax in their sexualities, therefore easily persuaded and sexually available. When faced with this imaged overly sexed ‘female Other’, the early modern hegemonic masculinity – which sought selfcontrol, refinement, and restraint – began to crumble.

A conflict within the European male traveller therefore appears, as his imagined status as a virile conqueror, of both land and body, skirmishes the boundaries of over sexing oneself and falling ‘prey’ to feminine ideations of lust. The inner management of sexual desire towards the non-European women, then, held social and personal consequences for the white man’s masculinity. Sexual interaction and lustful communication, in any form, with African and Amerindian women warped European men’s self-conceptualisations of their masculinities and created an internal conflict.

Taking the non-European female body as a symbol of both savagery and deceptive beauty, Ligon’s narrative discloses the dangerously seductive potential of the women’s bodies. Ligon’s account, therefore, discusses the boundaries of desire, and its

Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | Masculinity in Conflict ‘destructive’ potential to masculinity. He presents himself and his masculine identity in stark contrast to the women’s feminised, passive, hypersexualised, and voracious characters. Throughout, he speaks of the beauty and sexual attraction of the women he meets: “a negro of the greatest beauty and majesty altogether that I ever saw in one woman,” stating later that he has met two women who have “such features, as would mar the judgement of the best painters”. In particular, he continuously highlights the breasts of each woman he sees: “their breasts round, firm, and beautifully shaped.” In one instance, he claims that an enslaved African woman’s breasts hang so low to the ground that “you would think they [she] had six legs.” In all examples, Ligon reduces the women he

Illustration by Ruby Tait meets to their sexualised bodies and appearances; to him and his readers, the women stand as objects of desire and lust, rather than active subjects. In these ways, and in others, white European masculinity was actively produced through the observation and ordering of the Indigenous female body.

Ligon’s recurring descriptive accounts of women’s breasts and beauty alludes to wider seventeenthcentury Europe’s understanding of the female body. Breasts became increasingly politicised during this time, signifying female defencelessness or threat. In particular, the supposed pendulous form of Amerindian and African women’s

breasts conveyed a deformed, hyper-sexualised, or animalistic femininity, which was somehow familiar yet simultaneously unfamiliar, signalling the deception of femaleness. As such, the nonEuropean female body was depicted as intrinsically biologically and physically hyper-sexual, an inherent characteristic of Amerindian and African women which reconfigured their femininities as dangerously savage. Ligon actively contributes to this narrative through his textual account of the wider Atlantic world’s conflation of the cultural and the physical as presented as a social fact, and the pendulous breasts of Amerindian and African women comes to signify, and legitimise, the ethnological notion of the female ‘savage’. Reducing the women to their sexual

epistemological meanings in this way situates Ligon as the masculine figure, contrasting with the women’s subjugated place within the gendered colonial relationship.

During his stay in Cape Verde, Ligon spends his time with two Indigenous women where he writes that he trades goods, or, as he calls them, ‘gifts’, in return for their attention. For him, exchanging goods for sexual encounter, interaction, and communication vindicated his masculinity and marked the women as ‘below him’ or as objects which can be bought.

And yet, Ligon’s very sexualisation of the women also speaks of the perceived threats they held against European men’s masculinity. Sexual desire and interaction between male travellers and the women

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Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | Maculinity in Conflict they encountered were always ‘dangerous’, for they undermined masculine discipline and encouraged degenerative sexualised tendencies among ‘civilised’ men, stimulated by the hypersexualised and animalistic women’s ‘savagery’. Indeed, building on what Bridget Orr has argued, desire towards non-European women rendered visible a collision between ‘uncivilised women and ‘civilised men’ which could alter the way authorities and individual persons perceived European ‘superior’ masculinity.

Moreover, this desire apparently illustrated the European men’s uncontrollable sexual prowess and ‘instincts’, which were thought to be on par with the barbarous women encountered.

As masculinity connoted power and sexual dominance, and if Ligon’s very nature was so powerfully sexual, then the imagined overt sensuality of the African and Amerindian women could potentially unhinge him from the path of masculine civility. Ligon’s accounts of the women’s bodies and their association with being over-sexed allude to the threats which may coercively lead European men to effeminacy and weakness. The desire that he presents in his narrative, therefore, towards the nonEuropean women, was also intended to be seen as a potentially dangerous thought which could result in men’s masculinities being challenged or re-ordered along lines of hyper-sexuality.

Richard Ligon is but a microcosm of wider early modern narratives of sexual desire and heightened sexual experience and awakening while travelling throughout the Atlantic. His account speaks of an almost insatiable or uncontrollable lustful desire towards the Amerindian and African women he encountered. Re-ordering their bodies along European conceptualisations of patriarchy, the female bodies are hyper-sexualised, and their femininities characterised as passive, susceptible to European men’s virile masculinities. As such, European travellers also perceived a danger, as their masculinities were so unstable and relationally dependent upon the imagined gender characteristics of non-European women that their manhood was easily conflicted. Desire towards the hypersexualised female body could infer a susceptibility to

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over-feminine emotions of lust, in turn portraying the man as weak and powerless. Above all, then, desire towards African and Amerindian women evidences the instability of masculinity in the early modern Atlantic world, which was easily and continuously engrossed in inner conflictions when in interaction with the native women.

Consequently, the story of masculinity cannot be understood without also speaking of the women involved in shaping said masculinities. This desire defined African and Amerindian women by their sexual bodies, and their lives soon rested upon and were consumed by the patriarchal standards of European men. Dependent on their imagined masculinities, European men had to subjugate and sexualise the women they encountered and interacted with. They misinterpreted and completely warped understandings of African and Amerindian gender traditions, so that tribal dances were reduced to orgies and polygamy illustrative of the uncontrolled female lust. In an effort to form identities of manhood, European men also re-formed the personal histories and cultural representations of African and Amerindian women. Early modern Atlantic masculinity, therefore, is intimately tied the histories of Indigenous women.

After examining Richard Ligon’s accounts of African and Amerindian woman’s imagined sexualities and bodies, it can be concluded that sexualised communications of desire expressed in whichever form of interaction – physical or otherwise – between the male traveller and Indigenous women caused both an internal and societal conflict of masculinity.

With colonial expansion and travel away from the European metropole, an emerging masculine identity faced with sexual desire and endeavour towards non-European, specifically African and Amerindian, women conflicted with established masculinities ‘back home’. The masculine ethos and enterprise of empire and colonialism, as Peter Hulme had brandished it, was soon destabilised by this struggle of masculine identity.

A Conflict of Memory: Greece, Byzantium, and British Identity in the Nineteenth Century

By Tristan Craig Between the mid-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries, Greece and Rome were in Europe hailed as the pinnacle of human achievement – culturally, artistically, and politically. Neoclassicism permeated art and literature, with interest in Ancient Greece eventually moving to the fore in Britain through the Romantic Hellenism which arose in the context of the Napoleonic Wars. Whilst Classical Athens would be adopted into the collective memory of nineteenthcentury Britain, manifesting conspicuously in Enlightenment treatises, revivalist architectural form, and the Philhellenic movement, its consolidation in modern society rested on ideological, rather than chronological, continuity. In response to this movement, contemporaneous scholars sought to trace the link between the two divided worlds through the predominantly neglected Byzantine Period, spanning over one thousand years of Greek history. This article will examine the extent to which ancient Greece and the eastern Roman Empire were appreciated and appropriated in Britain during the nineteenth century and how this manifested in the emerging independent Greek state, British identity, and wider European interests.

Whilst discourse on Periclean democracy pervaded the works of Scottish Enlightenment scholars such as David Hume, John Gillies, and William Mitford during the eighteenth century, it was within the context of the Napoleonic Wars that Philhellenism would fully take root in Britain. Enmity toward Napoleon, who declared in 1812, ‘I am a true Roman Emperor; I am of the best race of Caesars – those who are founders’, had profound implications for the distinctly Roman model of liberalism that proliferated in eighteenth-century Britain. Polemical works against French imperialism ultimately gave rise to revisionist historiography which sought to trace the link between the ancient Greek polity and British liberalism. However, it was the publication of James Stuart and Nicholas Revett’s The Antiquities of Athens in 1762 which would introduce the British public to the grandeur of Athenian architecture and provoke a burgeoning interest in Classical Greece.

This was realised nowhere else other than in the attempts to reconstruct the Athenian Parthenon, a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena, and from which ornamentations had been largely stripped by Lord Elgin in the formative years of the nineteenth century.

Three notable projects in Cambridge, Edinburgh and London sought to emulate the Parthenon, the latter two serving as monuments to the Napoleonic Wars, telling of the stance against the previously dominant Roman classicism which Napoleon styled himself upon. Whilst the Cambridge and London projects did not progress beyond the initial plans, public fundraising began for Edinburgh’s National Monument. The city was styled as the cultural and intellectual successor of Athens, ‘whose genius has already procured for it the name of the Modern Athens’ and its topography, namely Calton Hill, was thought to mirror the Athenian Acropolis, lending itself well to attempts to rebuild the Parthenon upon it. For all the enthusiasm of those most committed to the Hellenization of the city, a lack of money proved to be the undoing of the project and on 30 June 1829, one of the principal architects, William Henry Playfair, announced that construction would cease indefinitely.

The acquisition of the Parthenon marbles by the British Museum in 1816 heralded a profound interest in the antiquities of Classical Greece. Richard Lawrence, in his 1818 monograph highlighting key exhibits of the Museum, commended the purchase of ‘this admirable collection of Grecian sculpture, being for the improvement and exaltation of the British school of art’. His aim was both to celebrate the artistic achievement of the sculptures and denounce those who, ignorant of their inherent beauty, who might question their worth. An admiration for the splendour of Classical Greece was gaining traction, even amongst those whose political persuasion was at odds with “Greek liberalism”. Lord Byron, who would come to join the Greeks in their fight for independence, was a staunch supporter of Napoleon Bonaparte (referring to himself by the initials ‘N.B.’) and remarked melancholically on the Athens which confronted him on his travels, far removed from the Classical world he admired. In the second canto of his 1812 poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, he writes:

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‘Fair Greece! sad relic of departed worth!

Immortal, though no more; though fallen, great!

Who now shall lead thy scattered children forth, And long accustomed bondage uncreate?’

Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | A Conflict of Memory The vestiges of antiquity no doubt struck admiration in Byron, not least in his denunciation of Elgin’s removal of the Parthenon marbles: ‘Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed / By British hands, which it had best behoved.’ This nostalgia found itself bounded by classical antiquity, even after Byron returned to Greece in 1823 to participate it the founding of a new nation which, in his eyes, would be free from the trappings of the feudal European order. There was no mention of the two millennia of history which followed the Classical Period, and certainly no mention of Byzantium.

Perhaps the most influential indictment of the Byzantine Empire is to be found in Edward Gibbon’s seminal work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In his multi-volume text, Gibbon deals with Byzantium fleetingly, offering enough attention to conclude his Roman history but providing little analysis of what he termed ‘a tedious and uniform tale of weakness and misery’. In focussing his attention on Constantinople rather than the full territorial expanse of the Byzantine Empire, his narrative subverted the evidence of stability and prosperity in the empire, echoing the eighteenth-century admiration of the Roman Republic. His interest in Greece was also profoundly limited to a liking for Classical literature and artistry, and his distaste for Byzantium followed that of other ardent opponents such as Admantios Koraes. Koraes, who lived from 1748 to 1833, was an expatriate of Ottoman Smyrna living in Paris and a scholar of Classical Greece and was equally disdainful in his treatment of the Eastern Roman Empire. He spurned the aristocratic Ecumenical Patriarch, the lavish expenditure on monasteries, and the stagnation of the Orthodox Church, which cared more for disputing frivolous ecclesiastical matters than dealing with the Ottoman occupancy of Greece. It was, as Koraes surmised, not the Byzantines or the Turks from whom the Enlightenment was propagated throughout Europe, but the ancient Greeks and their virtues of democracy and moral philosophy. Gibbon echoed Koraes’ sentiments towards Eastern Orthodoxy.

His despised the monastic image worshippers and despotism of liturgical ceremony which he saw as divergence from, rather than continuation of, the Roman Empire. Both Gibbon and Koraes reflect the anti-Byzantine sentiment prevalent during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; however, over the course of the succeeding decades, the memory of Byzantium would gradually gain recognition as a fundamental aspect of European history.

On a scholarly plane, the study of Byzantium as a relevant and vital discipline began to advance at

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Illustration by Emily Geeson this time. Demetrios Vikelas, who authored several books on Byzantium, sought to restore its position as an integral part of Greek history. Rather than romanticise this period, as was the case in the prevailing medievalist literature and drama, Vikelas intended to interrogate the prevailing notion that Byzantium was an era of decline and to assert its position as integral to the rebirth of Europe. Vikelas argued that Byzantium should not be compared with the ancient but rather with the modern Greece through the preservation of Hellenism and the propagation of Christianity. In a similar vein, George Finlay, in his preface to Volume I of A History of Greece, remarks that the Byzantine Empire, distinct from that of the Romans and Ottomans, allowed the Greek nation to flourish under its imperial administration. According to Finlay, the translation of the Greek polis to the Eastern Roman Empire in the fourth century, with Constantine’s Nova Roma at the centre, allowed the otherwise dispersed empire in the east to prosper, and provides a defining link between the worlds. This was manifested greatest in the Iconoclast regime of Emperor Leo III (the Isaurian); as Miltiades had driven the Athenians to victory at Marathon, so too had Leo ensured the prosperity of the Greeks against the intellectual oppression of the image-worshipping clerics. Whilst Edward Gibbon used icon veneration as a means

Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | A Conflict of Memory to demonstrate the weakness of Byzantium, Finlay focused on the reactionary Iconoclasm as a means of highlighting continuity. The literary eminence of the ancient Greeks also flourished amongst the learned in Constantinople until the Ottoman conquest, which Finlay notes had been largely neglected.

Finlay’s teleological approach to Byzantine historiography was propagated and expanded upon by fellow Philhellene E.A. Freeman. Even though Constantinople was, as Constantine inaugurated it in 330BC, intended as the Nova Roma, it was a city wherein the culture and language were Greek. It was this essential ‘Greekness’ which Freeman observed as a continuum throughout the history of Byzantine, which their identification as Roman subjects did not inhibit; as Byzantine historian Cyril Mango notes, in the nineteenth century, Greece had a population of less than a million and a half whilst they accounted for three to four million of the total population of the Ottoman Empire. Constantine Paparrigopoulos, the so-called ‘father of modern Greek historiography’ and author of the History of the Greek Nation, also attempted to reconstruct the continuum which lasted from Greek to Byzantium. Like Finlay, Paparrigopoulos argued that it was the Iconoclasts who perpetrated the continuity of Hellenism and that, despite their eventual demise, their liberalism would be realised once more in the nineteenth century.

It would not be until the twentieth century that the role of Byzantium in Greek national history was fully recognised, with the opening of the Byzantine Museum at Athens in 1912 and the appointment of the first professor of Byzantine history at the University of Athens in the same year. Throughout the twentieth century, scholars echoed the historians of the nineteenth century in both supporting and refuting the role Byzantium played in Greek history. Cyril Mango stated that ‘the Byzantines in general did not evince the slightest interest in what we understand

by classical Greece’, a position which echoes that of many earlier historians. Others looked to the Enlightenment as evidencing a closer relationship with Byzantium--historian Robert Byron argued that classicism was no longer comparable with modern life and that the rationalism of Byzantium was more befitting the present condition. Whilst many vestiges to Greek Revivalism remain in Britain to this day, the National Monument residing in Edinburgh – which remains unfinished almost two centuries after construction began – is perhaps telling of how fleeting this collective memory was.

Classical Greece undoubtedly had a profound influence on the artistic, literary, and philosophical output of the nineteenth century. An ideological shared memory would birth a new movement of architectural form, provoked reflection of national identity, and ultimately led the most ardent of Philhellenes to participate in the Greek Revolution.

With the arrival of the Elgin Marbles in the first decade of the century, British interest was piqued, with an outpouring of worship for the ‘unrivalled excellence’ of Athenian artists. Greece had replaced Rome, not least in Edinburgh, as the worthy forefather of the western world and served as the standard to which a nineteenth century individual ought to aspire.

However, this infatuation largely glossed over the succeeding two millennia of history and often openly despised it. Byzantium presented a problem for the collective memory which antiquity inspired.

For some, it was a period of disunity, oppression, and barbarity. For others, it provided the continuity through which the nineteenth-century intellect could assert themself with the ancient past. Whilst it can safely be asserted that the memory of Greece was certainly of greater importance during the nineteenth century, it was the memory of Byzantium which would provide the missing link unifying two otherwise separate societies.

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The Evolution, Themes, and Paradoxes of Irish Rebel Songs

By Verity Limond ‘The words of the bards come down the centuries to us’ – Patrick Pearse [1879-1916] Ireland’s long and difficult relationship with Britain is littered with both violent rebellions and peaceful protests motivated by political and religious concerns.

That much is well-known, but what is perhaps less often appreciated is that music and song have consistently been important in Ireland’s conflicts with its larger neighbour, acting as the expression of political ambitions and collective historical memory of oppression. Irish rebel songs are generally ballads and form a sub-genre of Irish folk music, using the same techniques and instruments but with distinctive subject matter, and are unequivocally associated with its national struggle. Irish rebel songs and nationalist/ republican sentiments became co-constituting to a large degree, with songs encouraging nationalist activities but also being shaped and determined by those same violent events. Song lyrics have dealt with contentious subjects such as rebellion, political and religious martyrdom, remembrance, and recruitment to the cause of Irish nationalism for an assumed young male audience.

Modern Irish republicanism has its origins in the late eighteenth century, when it was inspired by more established republican movements elsewhere in Europe. The Irish Rebellion of 1798 was ill-fated but became a reference point for later republicans, partly because the revolt provided material for rebel songs.

‘The Memory of the Dead’ by John Kells Ingram [1823-1907], published as a poem in 1843 and set to music in 1845, famously opens: ‘Who fears to speak of Ninety-Eight?

Who blushes at the name?

When cowards mock the patriot’s fate Who hangs his head for shame?’

(John Kells Ingram, 1842) The patriot in this song stands for figures involved in the rebellion such as Theobald Wolfe Tone [1763-1798], who committed suicide while under arrest after the uprising failed, and Lord Edward Fitzgerald [1763-1798], who was shot while being arrested before it began. More obliquely, it may also be understood to encompass the subsequent and even less successful 1803 insurrection organised

by Robert Emmet [1778-1803] in response to the 1801 Act of Union. The Act of Union had led to the submerging of the Irish legislature into a union parliament in London and was the most tangible outcome of the rebellion of 1798. The song laments

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those who forgot or dismissed the early attempts at self-determination. Paradoxically, however, the popularity of ‘The Memory of the Dead’ throughout the nineteenth century suggests that there were strong residual sympathies for the nationalist cause.

‘The Memory of the Dead’ praises republicans of the past and condemns people of the time for not sharing the same ardour, but it lacks the visceral quality of other ballads that recount the events of 1798, such as ‘Dunlavin Green’, which emotively depicts the execution of 36 participants in the failed rebellion.

The nineteenth century in Ireland saw a cultural re-awakening that paralleled romantic national political movements elsewhere in Europe, though patriotic Irish songs struggled between celebrating the physical-force approach of 1798 and allowing it to drift into hallowed memory in favour of the peaceful parliamentary nationalism advocated by figures such as Daniel O’Connell [1775-1847] and Charles Stewart Parnell [1846-1891]. Later in the nineteenth century, rebel songs took on a distinctly romantic quality that echoed the concerns of national movements with tradition, heritage, and culture.

This change in sentiment occurred on the back of the belief that some progress had been made in the form of Catholic Emancipation (the removal of socio-cultural restrictions based on adherence to Catholicism) in 1829, principally campaigned for by O’Connell. In this way, overtly political rebel songs could still be regarded as expressions of nationalist aspirations, while the performance of other, more romantic compositions with similar themes was acceptable at charity and middle-class concerts by the mid-nineteenth century.

Many of the popular rebel songs of the midnineteenth century were published in the newspaper The Nation, which was launched in 1842 as the official publication of the Young Ireland movement.

The Nation concerned itself with ballads because they were perceived to be the original poetry of the people, something providing continuity from the past through to the present and future. After the Young Ireland rebellion of 1848 failed, and despite the decline of The Nation, rebel songs were important for filling the hiatus between 1848 and the formation of the Irish Volunteers in 1913. By this point, the romantic nationalism of the nineteenth century had been replaced by overtly militant tunes, reflecting the serious revival of aspirations to armed rebellion. The 1916 Easter Rising was the next major republican act

Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | Irish Rebel Songs that both provided material for new rebel songs, such as ‘The Foggy Dew’, and cemented the popularity of existing works, most obviously ‘The Soldier’s Song’.

Having charted the moments at which new generations of rebel songs arose, I will now consider their significance. I have already noted two paradoxes: these songs were not formally or legally supressed, and they appealed both to politically committed, even violent, nationalists and to romantic cultural nationalists. But there are further paradoxes that can be uncovered. Even the relationship between songwriters and rebels was complex, with writers of rebel songs committed to the cause in varying degrees.

Sometimes the soldier and the songsmith were one and the same, but at other times songwriters were meeting apolitical commercial demand for romantic nationalist ballads rather than advocating for serious political commitment to the cause.

Rebel songs were widely circulated among working class audiences both in Ireland and abroad, and despite their violent associations, they were seen as more positive depictions of Ireland that counteracted national stereotypes. Many songs have strong religious overtones, but there is contradiction between those songs that remember deceased nationalists as martyrs, such as ‘God Save Ireland’ (1867), which immortalises three Irish Fenians who were publicly executed, and those that represent nationalist fighters as reborn and transcending death. One thing remains consistent throughout the contradictions, however: the protagonists and subjects of such songs. These were exclusively male, with a few notable exceptions such as ‘The Ballad of Ann Flood’ whose female narrator murders a British soldier who attempts to sexually assault a girl. Rebel songs were meant as a call-to-arms to young Irish men, while women were merely passive onlookers, especially once the trope of the grieving republican mother became firmly established by the mid-nineteenth century.

Moving forward in time, the modern uses of these songs raise questions about how to remember the history of these conflicts. Rebel songs’ meanings and contexts of production are generally more complex than twenty-first-century consumers may be aware. The modern versions that live on as covers by bands including The Wolfe Tones are particularly popular among diaspora communities in the USA and Scotland and, through audience ‘add-ins’, often become more simplistic, explicitly violent, or sectarian than in their original forms.

The classic example that endures in Irish twenty-firstcentury popular culture and politics is ‘The Soldier’s Song’ (called Amhrán na bhFiann in Irish), which began life as a rebel song celebrating violent conflict and is now the national anthem. Written sometime in the early twentieth century by Peadar Kearney [1883-1942], with music by Patrick Heeney [18811911], ‘The Soldier’s Song’ celebrates Gaelic Ireland’s participation in violent conflict against ‘Saxon’ (i.e.

Norman/English/British) invaders. After enjoying popularity as a marching song for the Irish Volunteers before and during the 1916 Rising and subsequently as the anthem of the Sinn Féin political party, it was adopted as the national anthem despite criticism of its militaristic lyrics.

‘Tonight we man the bearna bhaoil [gap of danger] In Erin’s cause, come woe or weal, ’Mid cannons’ roar and rifles’ peal, We’ll chant a soldier’s song.’

(Peader Kearney, c. 1909) Although originally written in English, since 1926 it has been used in its Irish translation by Liam Ó Rinn [1886-1943]. Given that few Irish people speak the language to any meaningful degree, this perhaps has the effect of sanitising it and making it more acceptable for official purposes, as people are not conscious of its militant message while singing it.

Irish rebel songs have played a prominent role in nationalism and republicanism since early attempts at rebellion. Although intertwined with the movement as a whole, rebel ballads have a co-constituting role with armed nationalism. The themes of political and religious martyrdom or rebirth were important in increasing public interest in the ideals of nationalism, while events such as rebellions and executions provided the content for ballads throughout the nineteenth century. The importance of rebel songs to the nationalist movement is demonstrated by the continuity of production and consumption from the early nineteenth century to the present day, when republican music continues to play a part in shaping attitudes and influencing Anglo-Irish relations.

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Illustration by Aoife Céitinn

Sed miles, sed pro patria: Classical Imitation and Allusion in the Epigraphic History of the First World War

By Izzy Nendick If you only had sixty-six characters to commemorate your loved one, killed before their time at the hands of a war deemed ‘great’, what would you choose to write? The sentence you are reading right now is a mere sixty-five characters long. It does not allow for much sentimentality. Yet those who were told by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to eulogise their departed with such brevity often looked to the Classics, reminiscent of both a glorious imagined heroic past and British upper-class schooling.

The classical quote served as a confluence and communicator of education and militarism, displaying learning as well as a false sense of death for glory, set against the backdrop of the First World War. The repeated utterances of the past in grave markers and poetry were a conscious act done to encapsulate and continue an imagined inheritance from the romanticised past into the context of World War One; ancient concepts pulled rather than pushed into the modern era. Whilst grave markers and their classical allusions communicate how people felt about the war and the resulting deaths, poetry both served as a motivator and as justification, as well as a reflective tool for the experience of war and conflict.

Physical epitaphs As the horrors of the First World War became apparent to those serving abroad in France and Belgium, the antique maxims learnt back at school became epitaphic, adorning the graves of the dead, recalling both the ancient past that they saw themselves continuing and the more recent past of their innocent childhood and education.

Limited to the sixty-six characters permitted by the War Graves Commission, classical quotations proved to be popular eulogies. Some examples include persta atque obdura (Be steadfast and endure; Horace. Sat. 2.5.39), coelum quid querimus ultra (What we seek more than heaven; Lucretius 3.18), and omne solum forti patria (To the brave, every land is his homeland; Ovid. Fast. 1.493). Many of the classical quotations used on epitaphs evoke a sense of patriotism for one’s country, adapting the classical tag to fit one’s desired message of love for England and dying for its ‘freedom’. However, not every epitaph written in Latin is of ancient origin. One epitaph reads “cui flos iuventutis integrae resectus est” (For what purpose

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has the flower of this generation been cut back?), and while it is not a quotation of any Latin author, it intends to appear as one. The use of Latin both imitates the use of ancient poetry for remembrance and makes use of a language emphasised in the public school system, giving subversive weight to its anti-war sentiment and indicating that classical imitation was just as powerful as allusion.

Another popular invocation of the past used by the soldiers of the First World War was Simonides’ epitaph for the Spartans at Thermopylae: “Stranger, report to the Spartans that we lie here, obedient to their words.” In Maitland’s epitaph for The Belgian Dead, he precedes the dedication with an untranslated passage of Simonides, memorialising the Lacedaemonian dead at Plataea. To use the epitaph without translation, and then to link it to the commemoration of the modern dead, relies on a presumption of the reader’s own education to inform them of the connection, therefore utilising the classical object to form modern sentiment. Like the original Greek context, Simonides’ words were also used physically to mark graves and memorials. Used previously in the Boer War, the quote proved popular again during the First World War, when it was used on epitaphs commemorating those lost at the Battle of Gheluvelt, the 9th Devonshires at the Somme, and The War Memorial in Southport, as well as many more private graves.

Epitaphic poetry While epitaphs used classical quotations to adhere the dead to the perpetuity of dying for one’s country, attributing the deaths to the unending cycle of human violence, poetry was a way for the living to explore the same themes. Poetry began to question the use of the classical object in reference to warfare, and while some upheld the sacrificial axioms of antiquity, others rejected their use as bromidic, changing how we view classical quotations to this day.

Indeed, the popularity of the Latin aphorism applying to the memory of public school can be addressed with the final lines of Newbolt’s poem Clifton Chapel: “Qui ante diem periit:/ Sed miles, sed pro patria” (Who died before his time but as a soldier and for his country). The poem places this archaic Latin maxim in the school chapel, thus directly linking an

Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | Sed miles, sed pro patria appropriation of the classical past with the physical and ideological architecture of the public school and its ethos of steadfast loyalty and self-abnegation. The poem proved to be inspirational to many in joining the war effort, seeing Newbolt’s Latin creation as a continuation of the somewhat anachronistic classical ethos of patriotism learnt in public school.

Initially the use of this Latin tag was a way to justify war and sacrificing oneself for their country, just as men had since the days of the Roman Empire, and to tap into the public-school ethos of unfaltering loyalty. However, the poetry of World War One began to subvert the tenet, resulting in Wilfred Owen’s proclamation of Horace’s words as “that old lie.” The phrase dulce et decorum est pro patria mori comes from the Odes of Horace, written with sincerity in the first century BCE, and nearly two thousand years later would come to adorn the walls of Sandhurst and numerous grave epitaphs, still spoken with the same sincerity as its Roman author.

Geraldine Robertson Glasgow’s poem titled Dulce et Decorum harnesses the Classical quotation to explore how the glory of dying for one’s country surpasses the horror of the death itself. In a similarly sincere yet more distasteful sentiment, J.W. Poe’s use of the same line of Horace for the subtitle for his poem on the Indian troops: “You have bound us to your Empire/ in bonds of Brotherhood fast,/ Eager to further its future,/ Proud to have share in its past.” The poem utilises Latin to reinforce both the message of colonialism and unquestioning self-sacrifice, which is made worse by the fact that Poe thinks the Indian troops would think it was ‘sweet’ to die for a country they had never visited, and which had exploited them for over a century. The use of Latin also reinforces the imperial sentiment, linking the British Empire to the Roman, and normalising nationalistic self-sacrifice.

Owen’s poem Dulce et Decorum Est subverted the prior use of the maxim to the extent that it can no longer be used sincerely. It sparked a recognition that the classical object, in the form of an over-quoted line of Horace, was truly being pulled into the narrative of the Great War, rather than being words to live (or die) by. The horrors of modern warfare in the First World War are fleshed out by Owen, with the horror of chemical weapons concluded by the Latin phrase about glory and sacrifice. Although he was not publicschool educated, Owen admired Latin and saw it as an access to social mobility. His rejection of mindless self-sacrifice enforced by education and the heroics of antiquity was complete with the declaration of Horace’s words as a time-honored, intentional lie.

Bolstered by the public-school ethos and emphasis on Classics, classical quotation justified the modern warfare and slaughter of World War One by forcing links to the heroic past of Thermopylae and the Roman Empire. Quoting the classics had long been a popular medium of expression, and the classical education in Britain’s public schools in the nineteenth and early twentieth century placed emphasis on these tags and apothegms as capturing the proper sentiment and spirit of what a good man should know and be. This characterisation, formed in the ancient past and public school, was then used to spur men into joining the British Army at the outbreak of war in 1914. Enacted both societally and on a personal level, individuals chose “dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” for their gravestones as much as society pushed that message onto those conscripting. Only after witnessing the horrors of modern warfare did those like Wilfred Owen start to question the much-used Horace quotation and others and began to identify them more as moral propaganda reanimated from a distant and irrelevant past.

Illustration by Melissa Kane 32

The Fairness Doctrine: Informing the Public, or Infringing Upon Them?

By Sam Marks On 2 November 1920, the first commercial radio station in the United States was established. That same evening, from a factory rooftop in Pittsburgh, Albert Sindlinger of KDKA read aloud the results of the 1920 U.S. Presidential Election. ‘Nobody had any comprehension of the significance of what was going on’, said Sindlinger when recounting the evening. The ‘couple hundred listeners’ to Sindlinger’s broadcast would lead the trend on what would become, by the end of the decade, the first electronic mass medium.

Broadcast radio took off in the United States throughout the 1920s. Six months after the foundation of KDKA, radios were in both high demand and in high supply.

By 1922, there were 500 AM radio stations operating across the country and a future 1947 survey showed that more than 80 per cent of Americans were radio listeners. News and entertainment were never so easily accessible to the wider public. As consumption of radio grew significantly throughout the 1920s, a “Golden Age of radio” emerged, stretching from the 1930s to the 1950s. Radio’s golden age brought about new types of programming that would reach the demands of the wider, more expansive audience. Play adaptations, mystery serials, quiz shows, comedies, sports, cooking shows, soap operas, variety hours, kids programming, and weather broadcasts all accompanied the news as staple aspects of daily programming. When President Calvin Coolidge’s second inaugural address was broadcast over radio on 6 December 1925, politics also became a staple in American radio. Across the country, Americans could now enjoy a shared, common experience.

Prior to the radio boom of the 1920s, the only significant regulation of radio was the Radio Act of 1912 which required radio stations to be licensed to broadcast legally, but which did not anticipate the popularity radio would gain throughout the next decade. Following the rise of broadcasting, the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was established. Stations were now required to act ‘in the public interest, convenience, or necessity’ to obtain broadcasting licenses. In 1934, the Federal Communications Commission superseded the FRC, taking on the federal powers of regulating radio. Throughout the 1930s, the Great Depression ravaged the country economically. The debilitated economic climate gave rise to broadcast evangelism: the practice of Christian preachers using the radio, and later television, to spread their faith. These broadcasts became extremely

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popular, especially in the Midwest and South, where listeners flooded evangelists with donations to keep their programs on-air. In addition to religious views, notorious televangelists often espoused anticommunist, antisemitic, and segregationist views.

Many also funded their programming by selling so-called “miracle cures” for a variety of ailments, despite the lack of any scientific evidence to back up their claims. The influence of these broadcasters led to the FCC implementation of policies to curb the polarizing climate of modern radio. This regulation culminated in the Fairness Doctrine.

In 1938, Lawrence J. Flynn challenged the licenses of Boston stations WAAB and WNAC. Flynn argued these stations aired one-sided editorial attacks towards politicians that the owner, John Shepherd III, opposed. Though Flynn failed to gain the licenses for these stations, the FCC banned radio editorials in the 1941 Mayflower Decision. In 1949, the FCC repealed the Mayflower Doctrine in favor of the Fairness Doctrine. Two key regulations were now placed on radio stations. The first was the “fair coverage rule”: radio stations needed to ensure coverage of controversial issues was sufficient and gave fair representation to opposing views on those issues.

The second regulation was the right to reply: citizens must be given airtime to reply to issues aired on the radio. These regulations raised the standards stations had to follow, significantly hindering the power of both preachers and biased programmers.

The regulations under the Fairness Doctrine carried over to television as it gradually overtook radio as the mass media in the 1950s. In a similar fashion to 1920s radio, television brought a new wave of communication that was heavily popularized across the country. The prominence of television in America is still present today, with a 2011 survey showing that 97 per cent of American households own a television set. With the general expansion of mass media, including the explosive popularity of the internet as a broadcasting tool, more polarizing broadcasters utilizing these new communication technologies followed. Democratic Party affiliates used the Fairness Doctrine to try and combat farright viewpoints. The goal of these attacks was to make it too costly for right-wing broadcasters to be aired, so stations would not contract them. Groups like the National Council for Civil Responsibility consistently took the spearhead against far-right

Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | The Fairness Doctrine broadcasters. The increased use of the Fairness Doctrine drew political attention to the way that it could be challenged as legislation.

The most prominent challenge to the Fairness Doctrine came during the 1969 Supreme Court case Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC. The case originated from a dispute about on-air personal attacks without response time. Billy J. Hargis, an evangelical and segregationist broadcaster, discussed the work Goldwater: Extremist of the Right by Fred J. Cook on his Christian Crusade broadcast from WGCB in Red Lion, Pennsylvania. Cook sued the company, arguing that he had the right to respond to any attacks on his work. Red Lion in turn sued the FCC over the Fairness Doctrine, which they argued violated First Amendment rights of freedom of the press. The Fairness Doctrine was unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court, arguing that it was essential to creating an “informed public” envisioned by the First Amendment. However, this ruling did not argue in favour of the Fairness Doctrine’s continued usage, nor did it prohibit its repeal.

Throughout the 1970s, the US witnessed another recession that rivaled the great depression, causing a rise of “televangelists” through TV broadcasting. The efforts to suppress more right-wing views failed, as the country had turned to politicians of that ideology to alleviate the woes citizens felt. When more politicians with right-wing views came to power, government regulation of the airwaves decreased significantly. In 1987 and under the presidency of Ronald Reagan, the four FCC commissioners unanimously abolished the Fairness Doctrine under the Syracuse Decision, arguing that the doctrine hurt public interest by violating free speech. While Congress attempted to codify the Fairness Doctrine before it could be abolished, its attempts were vetoed

by Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

The unfiltered atmosphere that had been created by the repeal of the doctrine led to the explosive rise of Conservative Talk Radio: an incredibly popular and current form of broadcasting in America.

In 1988, ABC Radio executive Ed McLaughlin signed Rush Limbaugh, who became the premier conservative voice in America for over two decades.

Discovered in a small station in Sacramento, Limbaugh was aired on stations for free where he trafficked conspiracy theories, far-right politics, and divisiveness. It was the most consistently listened-

to radio show in America and the highest rated talk radio show in the country. Since Limbaugh’s passing in 2021, other right-wing commentators such as Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, and Mike Gallagher have all made it to the top ten most listened-to radio broadcasts in the country.

In addition to radio, other forms of media content came under partisan influence. In 1996, both FOX News and MSNBC launched as TV channels. FOX, currently the most watched news network in the US, emerged as a competitor to the major news networks and primarily voices conservative-leaning biases. Its primetime presenter Tucker Carlson has become the most watched news personality in the country. The most prominent progressive-leaning news channel, MSNBC, is the second most watched channel in the country. Rachel Maddow, a progressive pundit, has appealed to the more left-leaning bases in the country. Both have significantly aided the increase in polarization and division in the American political climate. The emergence and domination of partisan broadcasting in America has led to debates over the potential return of the Fairness Doctrine.

Supporters of restoring the Fairness Doctrine have argued that it provides people with what they need to hear. Despite this, the several attempts in Congress to restore the Fairness Doctrine have received minimal effort. A current bill, Restore the Fairness Doctrine Act of 2019, was introduced in the House of Representatives with only one sponsor.

Opponents of restoring the Fairness Doctrine have argued that it restricts people’s access to what they want to hear. Public opinion polls conducted in 2008 show only 47 per cent of voters support government regulation in a similar fashion to the Fairness Doctrine. In addition, the prevalence of partisan content on social media has desensitized many of the viewers to such content on the news.

As it stands today, the Fairness Doctrine is largely overlooked in US history. With current polls showing a strong public distrust in the media, the ramifications of repealing the Fairness Doctrine have been heavily felt. Broadcasting once served as a way of expressing the facts of a situation; now it is used to debate what the facts are. Unless a change is made to the structure of media, the current trajectory is looking to continue, all of which was never foreseen by Sindlinger back in that small factory rooftop shack in Pittsburgh.

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Communication of Resistance, Complicity and Supremacy: the Cruciality of Conflict over Animal Lives and Symbolism to “Colonial Africa”

By Grace Volante Scholars of animal studies have emphasised the ubiquitously pervasive presence of non-human animals in human lives and culture – it is not surprising that European colonialism in Africa provides no exception. Animal history attempts to introduce animals as actors and subjects in history, placing animals within narratives where they have been previously ignored. This article will explore the crucial place of animal bodies in the propagation and reception of European imperialism on the continent of Africa, with an eclectic approach focusing on a range of examples from scholarship and primary sources.

When it comes to the physical aspect of this conflict for control of animal bodies, the article will primarily touch upon dogs and livestock, but will also explore wider symbolic themes concerning ‘wild’ animals generally. In doing so, the article aims to highlight the often overlooked significance of the conflict over non-humans, and the inscription of lasting symbolic meaning onto animal lives as major features of the colonial struggle in Africa.

Why attempt to singularly treat such a large and various place as ‘Africa’ in this article, you might ask? The continent is diverse in its very categories of diversity: landscape, culture, history, etc. My response would be that, firstly, colonialism in Africa is often treated generally in scholarship due to European approaches to colonialism there sharing many themes and patterns. Any study with greater length and a more specific argument would of course be forced to take a narrower focus; however, for the purposes of merely demonstrating the importance of the often overlooked conflict over non-human animals symbolically and physically in interactions with colonialism, the area will suffice. My intention is not to homogenise the place in any way shape or form, merely to use it as a diverse geographical area through which we can demonstrate the variety of ways in which the colonial struggle entails a struggle over animal lives and relationships.

To begin by discussing a basic justification for the imperial mission itself, and an undercurrent which ran throughout the colonial endeavour, the logic of colonialism was inseparable from biological and zoological ideas of racial inferiority and social Darwinism. Sujit Sivasundaram shows that questions for European scientists surrounding race

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and boundaries between human and non-human animals were followed via the same lines of enquiry and material specimens, for example, through the collection of human and animal skulls alongside each other. This was accompanied by background cultural theories of biological and social Darwinism asserting that “Men differ more widely from one another than they do from the Apes”, inextricably tied up with assumptions of racial superiority.

This racism of Darwin’s work is fairly widely known today; an impact that is less touched upon is the attempted wielding of colonial power through subsequent ‘racialisation’ of animal bodies: the attempted realisation of human racial constructions through the bodies of non-human animals. One form of racialisation which still leaves a physical imprint on the world today is the creation of dog breeds for the protection and service of colonials and settlers, including the breeding of German Shepherds, known to be a global symbol of imperial aggression, and of Boerboel dogs and Rhodesian Ridgebacks as non-human representatives of ‘settler nativism’, in the words of Lance van Sittert and Sandra Swart. In a time in which animal and human eugenics was on the rise, such breeds were specifically engineered to perpetrate aggression against Black Africans, as well as to represent what white settler communities perceived as their own strength and pure heritage. Doble explores how, on the flipside of this, racialisation was also attempted through the colonial construction of “Native dogs”, designated as dangerous and diseased vagrants who needed regulation in white urban spaces. In this way, European ideas about the inferiority of Africans were projected onto dogs viewed as ‘African’ or Africanowned, causing their culling and condemnation by Europeans.

Relatedly, Nancy Jacobs’ study on the Bophuthatswana donkey massacre reveals a similar condemnation of animals viewed as defined by their ownership by indigenous Africans. Jacobs’ paper finds that animals and owners were blamed by the colonial government for the alleged negative environmental and societal impacts of donkeys, particularly pertinent because of the value of donkeys for those who could not afford more expensive livestock. This targeting and neglect of animal bodies belonging to economically-

Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | Communication of Resistance marginalised people in Bophuthatswana was part of a wider trend of imperial efforts to destroy and appropriate African wealth and livelihoods, and to force indigenous people into exploitative European wage-labour. Similarly, Richard Waller expounds ideas of “dirty” and “clean” areas within Kenyan Highland reserves pertaining to supposed tickridden African-owned cattle, causing the deliberate economic marginalisation of Kenyans, and social as well as livestock segregation. All of this derived from an attempt to protect and maintain economic and political separation between white settlers and Africans in Kenya, in addition to ideas about the natural inferiority of African and African-owned animals. Such efforts are representative overall of a key part of colonial power: attempted control over who could use and relate to which animals for which purposes. As well as the economic element, these actions by European powers employ a crucial ideological project of depicting themselves as righteous custodians of non-human animals, and “Africans” (a homogenised group in the European imagination, with the same nature and characteristics) as irresponsible custodians.

Unsurprisingly, many of the communities marginalised by these bovine machinations responded in kind, seeming to envisage colonial

power and its effects through the bodies of their livestock. Direct resistance to colonial power over African-owned animal bodies took the form of a fifteen-year refusal of colonial veterinary services by Meru cattle-owners, and failed colonial attempts at mass-immunisation in North Nyanza. A missionary record of a Basotho song relating to rinderpest – a cattle plague brought to Africa by European livestock – and the destruction of economic and social life illustrates well the devastation of the zoonosis, each line beginning with “No more cattle”, naming a cultural or economic loss as a result of rinderpest, then asking how crucial practices can continue, such as marriage and food consumption. This source suggests that the dispossession of animal bodies resulting from colonialism was a fundamental kind of dispossession for the Basotho, demonstrating the essential nature of animal bodies and their uses for this dispossessed community. It would make sense, then, for understanding of and resistance to colonialism to pertain to these lost, altered and “colonised” animal bodies. Indeed, Jeffrey Peires attributes the Xhosa cattle-killing movement of 18567 to frustration at the new colonial situation; this movement advocated purging the community of its “impure” cattle and crops, which would later be replaced by a new generation of Xhosa people, cattle and grain. In this event, the remaining or killed

Illustration by Emily Geeson

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Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | Communication of Resistance animal bodies were the focal point of how the overall situation was understood.

There are many smaller-scale ways in which animal bodies comprised part of the understanding and subversion of colonial power, interesting and unique understandings of the colonial situation which challenge the European endeavour to dominate animal symbolism. One example is the account by Charles Muhoro Kareri, an influential moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Eastern Africa, of his father forbidding him to go to the local European mission school when he was a child due to European practices surrounding animal bodies, transgressive from a Kikuyu perspective and manifest in their practice of eating “wild” animals, implying that missionary colonisation of the human body would entail unacceptable practices relating to animal bodies. This illustrates how basic aspects of life such as the consumption of animals served as part of the politics of colonial complicity and cultural transgression for Kenyan communities; this is also expressed through the humorous statement in the Muthirigu, a dance at Meru missions and schools protesting colonial intervention in female “circumcision”, that an “uncircumcised” pregnant woman would give birth to dogs. Here, colonial interruption of initiation practices is jokingly said to cause the birth of a being that is not human, a common theme in the understanding of births by “uncircumcised” women, this time framed in relation to non-human animals. From these examples, it seems that envisioning the effects of colonial power entailed for some communities a prediction of an altered and inverted relationship with wildlife and non-human bodies.

Ultimately, just as theories of race and animality fuelled the colonial mission in the first place, this logic was turned on its head by some indigenous intellectuals attempting to demonstrate the cruelty of European colonialism. Sol Plaatje, South African journalist and polymath, attempted to have British audiences understand the injustice of colonial power through discussing the wrongs that animal bodies suffered as a result of colonial policies. Plaatje played on British sentiments around kindness to non-humans, writing “We… wondered if the animals were not more deserving of pity than their owners”, and tried to harness the European likening of Africans to animals, urging that animal-like people should also be treated kindly. Moreover, the way in which Jomo Kenyatta, the first Prime Minister of Kenya, chose to describe to British audiences

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the injustice of colonialism, was to describe the situation of white settler land-ownership through a Gikuyu story about wild animals. In this story, a man is gradually displaced from his hut in the jungle because of his kindness in letting an elephant share his hut during rain, only to continue to be homeless as all the animals of the jungle take the elephant’s side. In this story, the elephant (European) prioritises his bodily safety and comfort in the man’s (Gikuyu’s) own home and deliberately displaces him, despite knowing this bodily and psychological discomfort.

Why this particular story is used to make Kenyatta’s point is an interesting question, and it is equally interesting to speculate on the significance of perhaps switching the “civilisational” narratives of “Africans” as animal-like and Europeans as civilised, especially in the context of a violent and devastating action such as deliberate displacement of Kenyans from their homes, which hardly fits with the European “civilised” narratives.

Through these disparate examples, we can see the great extent to which animal bodies were a crucial part of the operation of colonialism and colonial power, both through their deliberate use during the attempted assertion of colonial power, and as a way to understand and react to colonialism and colonial power. Historians have often focused on the economic importance of colonial power and its use of animal bodies, but the pervasiveness of animals in human lives and culture means that animals can be found everywhere in ideas about colonialism and its social effects. Colonial power was wielded not just through the targeting of indigenous-owned animal bodies and biopolitical control of animal and human populations, altering and eradicating indigenous human and non-human bodies; it was in itself predicated on European biological racist discourse surrounding an idea of “Africans” and non-human animals. Indigenous communities’ and individuals’ imagination of and resistance to colonial power through animal bodies was naturally diverse, often with the effects of colonial power conceived in relation its transgression of accepted treatment and practices of humans and non-humans. As such, the impact on and creation of animal bodies due to colonialism was unprecedented, and a struggle for dominant and righteous action and meaning involved a fundamental revelation of how humans relate to non-human animals.

How Communication Saved the World: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Wynne-Penkovsky Espionage

By Kat Jivkova The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the US and the Soviet Union into a dangerous standoff lasting thirteen days in October of 1962. Known as the ‘biggest Cold War confrontation’, the origins of the crisis lay in the alignment of Cuba with the Soviet Union under leftist leader Fidel Castro. US officials anticipated that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev would use Cuba to establish a military presence in the Western hemisphere, thus directly threatening American national security. On 14 October, these suspicions were confirmed. After weeks of hunting, the American U-2 spy plane finally captured images of missile sites near San Cristobal in Cuba. In the days to come, communication between Khrushchev and US president John F. Kennedy would be the most critical factor in deterring a large-scale nuclear war. On a smaller scale, the communication between spies Oleg Penkovsky and Greville Wynne was undoubtedly the most productive espionage of the crisis, enabling the British and Americans to obtain crucial Soviet intelligence.

The correspondence between Kennedy and Khrushchev during the crisis reveals the importance of communication in times of nuclear confrontation.

Neither Kennedy nor Khrushchev wanted to start a nuclear war. Khrushchev provided Castro with ‘defence capabilities’ in order to protect Cuba from future invasions, and Kennedy interpreted this decision as a direct threat to the US – Soviet ballistic missiles had a range of over one thousand miles, hence could reach most major American cities within mere minutes of launch. At the beginning of the crisis, the two leaders exchanged a series of letters blaming one another for the crisis. A “flurry” of messages on both sides of the confrontation were sent over both formal and informal channels, resulting in dangerous misunderstandings, mistakes and misinformation.

This is most evident following Kennedy’s decision to place a naval blockade upon Cuba at the beginning of the crisis.

Kennedy had consulted a newly created National Security Council known as ExComm – to assist him in the best course of action – following the discovery of missiles in Cuba. Over the next five days, Kennedy and his council made the decision to place a naval “quarantine” on Cuba in order to prevent any more missile shipments from entering the country. US Navy ships positioned themselves eight hundred miles from the Cuban shore in order ‘to remove the threat

to the security of the nations of this hemisphere,’ according to Secretary of State Dean Rusk. Tensions rose further following Kennedy’s televised speech to the US public regarding Soviet plans in Cuba.

Kennedy ended the speech by directly addressing Khrushchev: ‘I call upon him further to abandon this course of world domination, and to join in an historic effort to end the perilous arms race and to transform the history of man.’

In response to Kennedy’s speech, Khrushchev responded that he did not intend to respect the blockade: ‘The Soviet Government considers that the violation of the freedom to use international waters and international air space is an act of aggression which pushes mankind towards the abyss of a world nuclear-missile war.’

The crisis escalated even further on 25 October during an emergency session held by the UN Security Council. This session was the wake-up call that Khrushchev needed. US and Soviet ambassadors, Adlai Stevenson and Valerian Zorin respectively, engaged in a tense discussion over the existence of offensive nuclear weapons within Cuba. Zorin repeatedly tried to evade the question but was finally bested by Stevenson, who unveiled a presentation showing the U-2 spy plane photographs US forces has taken. Stevenson said: ‘We know the facts, and so do you, sir, and we are ready to talk about them.

Our job here is not to score debating points … it is to save peace.’

Khrushchev was surprised by American response to Soviet missiles in Cuba. He was convinced that he would successfully be able to install missiles in Cuba secretly, leaving the US with no choice but to concede to Soviet presence in the country. He stated: ‘we just wanted to intimidate them, to deter the antiCuban forces.’ Khrushchev understood the severity of the crisis and decided that a better course of action would be to negotiate with the US. He sent Kennedy his first conciliatory letter on 26 October. The letter was long and filled with emotion. Khrushchev mentioned that he had no wish to relive the trauma of war, and reassured Kennedy that the Soviet Union had no intention of attacking the US from Cuba. He proposed that if the US removed the naval blockade and promised to not attack Cuba, then he would remove Soviet missiles from the island nation: ‘We and you ought not now to pull on the ends of the

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Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | Communication Saved the World rope in which you have tied the knot of war, because the more the two of us pull, the tighter that knot will be tied …let us take measures to untie that knot.’

Khrushchev sent a more aggressive letter the day after, before Kennedy had the chance to reply to the first. This was probably due to mounting pressures from hard-line communists within Khrushchev’s government. The new letter not only held a much more formal tone, but also added a new condition to ending the crisis: that the US were to withdraw their own missiles from Turkey. Kennedy faced a dilemma of how to respond to both these letters, which had been sent within a matter of hours. With the help of his brother, Robert, he decided to respond to the first letter on 27 October, agreeing to Khrushchev’s initial terms and promising to remove US missiles from Turkey in secret. Thus, the crisis ended on 28 October and the world was swept away from the brink of nuclear war.

While this much larger communication between two world leaders was happening, a high-grade exchange of information between foreign trade negotiator and engineer Greville Wynne and GRU officer (Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Soviet General Staff) Oleg Penkovsky played an important part in diffusing the crisis. Recruited by the CIA-MI6 team, Penkovsky desired to “save” the world from both communism and the Soviet military threat. Meanwhile, Wynne was chosen as the vital link between Penkovsky and the MI6, acting as a courier for important Soviet information. This included nuclear plans, identities of KGB officers, information about military headquarters and any missile developments. In the space of 14 months beginning in 1961, Penkovsky and Greville exchanged approximately 5,000 secret documents to the CIA-MI6 team.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Penkovsky provided Greville with information on every operational missile in the arsenal of the USSR, manuals for the mediumrange ballistic missiles that had been placed in Cuba, and for intermediate-range Ballistic Missiles (IRBMs).

These manuals enabled CIA analysts to discern the technical capabilities of the missiles deployed to Cuba by comparing them to aerial photographs taken at the beginning of the crisis. Penkovsky’s information also allowed the US National Photographic Interpretation

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Centre to identify the deployment patterns of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. Subsequently, the National Intelligence Estimates, using Penkovsky’s documents, were able to advise Kennedy to avoid a direct military intervention in Cuba which undoubtedly would have escalated the situation.

Alongside this, Penkovsky’s political information regarding mounting opposition to Khrushchev in the Communist Party pushed Kennedy to react in an even more decisive manner before the Soviet leader was cornered by his own subordinates. Thus, Penkovsky is regarded as the most active spy during the crisis, and his communication with Wynne enabled the CIA-MI6 handler team to understand Soviet intentions more clearly.

Beyond exchanges of information, Greville and Penkovsky developed a friendship in contrast to Kennedy and Khrushchev’s strictly professional correspondence. From ‘approved for release’ papers documenting the meetings between the two men, it has recently been revealed that Penkovsky met Wynne’s family and they shared many a drink. This remarkable relationship between two spies reflects the determination of both sides of the “Iron Curtain” to de-escalate a crisis that could lead to nuclear war.

Unfortunately, both Penkovsky and Wynne were tried in Moscow in May 1963, with Penkovsky executed and Wynne sentenced to eight years in prison. The bravery of these men, and their espionage during the Cuban Missile Crisis will always be remembered as monumental in helping the world avoid an even larger nuclear crisis.

Ultimately, the communication between both Kennedy and Khrushchev and Wynne and Penkovsky demonstrate the ability for people in power to overcome their differences in order to ensure peace. While the correspondence between the two world leaders was initially unsuccessful, the turning point of the UN meeting allowed for communication to improve, with Khrushchev setting terms for the end of the crisis and Kennedy accepting. Contrastingly, Wynne and Penkovsky’s correspondence was conducted much more covertly and while it was successful for over a year, sadly ended with both men being arrested. Nonetheless, both forms of communication during the Cuban Missile Crisis were responsible for saving the world.

Communication and Consistency: The Romanisation of Mandarin

By Archie Jacob Note from the author: In respect of brevity, the article will only consider a relatively short period and will exclusively refer to the history of romanisation of the language known as Mandarin, and to its history in the mainland area of China, and in the context of the Anglosphere. There are multiple languages and dialects spoken in China, and in Overseas Chinese communities. There is great variation in accents and dialects being present even within the Mandarin language.

In some forms of Mandarin used out of the mainland area of China, the use of traditional characters continues, with other languages being spoken by minority groups or those from non-Mandarin speaking areas. This note is to clarify that the aim of the article is to provide a short history on the changing spellings of romanisations of Mandarin as it is spoken on the mainland of China, and mainly concerns the sources of change in Western spellings of respective Mandarin words. This article will refer to Mandarin, the most widely spoken language of the mainland, as Chinese.

Minority languages and the Mandarin spoken by Overseas Chinese peoples have distinct histories which are deserving of their own approaches and histories. One should also consider the comparatively fewer Chinese surnames, and the fact that they are listed before the given name in the Chinese naming tradition. In keeping with the famous example used throughout this article, the surname/family name of Mao Zedong is Mao, with his given name being Zedong. In contrast to most names in the Anglosphere, the distinguishing aspect of Chinese names is the given name, rather than the family name. Italicised words are the pinyin translation of Chinese characters, or names of works in either language.

When studying the history of China, we historians often encounter a strange lack of continuity in the names ascribed to figures, places, and events. Why do some sources and writings refer to the first leader of the People’s Republic of China as Mao Zedong, and why do others write Mao Tse-tung? In Western writings, the shift from Mao Tse-tung to Mao Zedong occurs towards the end of the twentieth century.

Names of people were not the only ways in which the writing of Mandarin from the mainland had changed: Peking is now called Beijing, Chunking is now Chongqing.

But why are there so many different spellings?

Though Jesuit missionaries and Chinese scholars alike had developed very early attempts, the bestknown conversions of Chinese characters (hanzi) into roman script employed the system known as WadeGiles. This system was developed in the middle of the nineteenth century and was completed by 1892 with the Chinese-English Dictionary. This dictionary was published by Herbert Giles following on the earlier work of Thomas Wade. It is from this system, best known to previous generations of historians, that translations such as Mao Tse-Tung and NanChing have been derived. Wade had worked on a number of books that laid the foundation for what became the Wade-Giles system of romanisation, which was used for the majority of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Many famous figures, place names and events, are still romanised using this system in keeping with contemporary practice, or to preserve continuity and recognition. Mao’s premier is sometimes still referred to as Chou En-lai (as he was by contemporaneous Western press), despite modern romanisation under pinyin using the spelling Zhou Enlai. The use of Wade-Giles, if in modern writings, is usually in well-known or exceptional cases. This discrepancy is still seen in the West in spellings of surnames of Chinese origin: two individuals may have their surname spelt in different ways despite their Chinese names using the same character, in this example 周.

The Wade-Giles system was also employed in a similar time period to, and influenced the development of, postal romanisation of Chinese area names. English spellings of Chinese city names were issued by the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service (Da Qing huangjia haiguan zhongshuiwusi). This office, though run by the government of China, was staffed by foreigners from many nations. Before 1897, letters written had used various systems or ‘unofficial’ variations of Chinese place names, often leading to failure to deliver. However, the resultant names issued by the office after ‘standardisation’ have become well known, with such famous examples as Peking (Beijing), Kwantung (Guangdong), and Nanking (Nanjing). Many of these names did not quite obey the rules of Wade-Giles romanisation, which is why the system of postal romanisation is considered distinct. One might still hear these names used, for example with Canton (Guangzhou, or sometimes the province of Guangdong). Given its status as a national institution and the requirement

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Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | The Romanisation of Mandarin of accurate spelling to ensure delivery of letters, the rulings of the postal service on pronunciation were given a certain credence. However, the unique approach to romanisation by the office did cause problems when, in the early part of the twentieth century, the organisation decided to prefer the local pronunciation of the respective name over favouring one specific dialect.

Spellings in English drastically differed depending on the language of the translator and the dialect with which they were acquainted. The variations in Chinese pronunciation and transliteration, and the differing translations of area or city names, have left their own marks in the form of numerous translations of various names for the same places. The postal service moved between taking influence from various dialects and at other times giving preference to one dialect. This resulted in multiple ‘official’ spelling changes. For some time, the office did prefer the Beijing form of pronunciation and subsequently a certain form of transliteration. This decision would be later mirrored in the development of the modern system of Pinyin. Though the influence of the postal romanisation is becoming weaker with time, many older historiographies or contemporary sources use

various transliterations that were accepted at the time by the postal service. However, the spelling may change depending on the preferred spelling of the office at the time, and the individual source’s compliance or otherwise. One may still encounter dissimilarities in the names of cities: this is because these translations, depending on their year, favoured regional dialects, southern Mandarin, or northern Mandarin pronunciations in their transliteration. It is safe to say that despite continued efforts, the office did not manage to reach a consensus on which dialect to favour, nor on which romanisation to use. Lane Harris’ study of the “maddening variety of alternate spellings” provides an in-depth analysis of the challenges of regional variety and romanisation that occurred even within a somewhat unified institution.

Considering the sheer size of the Chinese nation, it is unsurprising that many dialects have developed and are still spoken even within the language of Mandarin. The prevalence and development of minority languages have their own rich histories.

Though the incumbent dynasty may have spoken one variation of Mandarin, in another province the language may have sounded entirely different or may not even have been Mandarin. Despite the characters

Wipe out illiteracy

扫除文盲

Saochu wenmang, November 1953. Image via: https://chineseposters.net/posters/pc-195b-017

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Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | The Romanisation of Mandarin of Chinese being more or less entirely standard even before simplification in the 1950s, dialects are very region-specific. To this day, Southwestern Mandarin has a huge speakership, and is not entirely interchangeable with Standard Chinese, which is derived from Standard Beijing Mandarin. There are many other iterations of distinct forms of Mandarin; however, Beijing Mandarin is often to what one refers when speaking of Mandarin or the Chinese language.

In the early years of the twentieth century, which were the final years of the Qing Dynasty, language reform was a topic of much debate. The end of the Qing Dynasty signalled a new era for China, with the end of Imperial rule and the declaration of the Republic of 1912. Language was certainly not left untouched by this drastic change. By 1932, the Ministry of Education had issued a dictionary with the aim of standardising pronunciation. This dictionary also included a romanised script, thereby facilitating the writing of the new pronunciations in most Western languages.

Despite this development, the writing of Chinese characters in the West would not adopt a form developed primarily by Chinese people until the proliferation of Pinyin towards the end of the twentieth century. Wade-Giles remained predominant until relatively recently. Unless dealing with a specific dialect, or with a minority language, the majority of modern sources regarding the mainland will refer to Chinese characters by use of the pinyin system. Out of this system we would see the name of the first leader of the PRC as Mao Zedong (rather than the older Wade-Giles Mao Tse-tung).

By 1958, it was adopted as the preferred system by the first National People’s Congress. Though many mid-century Western histories or other sources often employed the American system of Yale romanisation, we are increasingly seeing a preference for the pinyin system. The most well-known figure in the development of pinyin is Zhou Youguang (or Chou Yu-kuang in Wade-Giles). The system of pinyin’s development took much influence from the preceding romanisation efforts originating from China: Latinxua Sinwenz and Gwoyeu Romantzyh. The romanisation (pinyin) was one of three targets of the CCP’s language reform, along with simplification of characters and standardisation of vernacular (putonghua). These

reforms were achieved and implemented to the extent that the mainland still follows the language practices laid down in the late 1950s. Characters on the mainland are more often than not simplified. The Anglosphere has also increasingly used this form of romanisation, though uptake was not instantaneous.

The characters used on the mainland are largely of the ‘simplified’ version. However, simplification does not affect romanisation, as the new character tends to be the same as the traditional, yet with fewer strokes. The romanisations used both in the West and China were accepted as having an ancillary role to the new simplified characters, with calls for full phoneticisation or Latinisation fading into obscurity, especially after the deployment of pinyin romanisation and simplified characters, and their later adoption by Western schools and societies.

For place names, we still somewhat see a simultaneous use of the old postal names and Wade-Giles, though even these long-standing transliterations are beginning to prefer pinyin. In names of outstandingly famous individuals there is still somewhat of a preference for the Wade-Giles system: in the University of Edinburgh library entry for one of Mao’s books the title reads “Selected works of Mao Tse-tung”, with the author listed as Mao Zedong – a perfect example of the mixed employment of systems. Many restaurants will still refer to a certain South-Western province’s food as Szechwan, despite the new pinyin name being written as Sichuan. The reasons for various selections for both names of individuals and regions continue in their use, no doubt as a means for maintaining familiarity.

What one should consider, either in historical studies or more generally, is the context of a transliteration or translation. This article has only covered a short history of romanisation of the Chinese language, and only in the context of the mainland of China – despite this, we can see the sheer variety of interpretation of Chinese characters. Despite the simplification of Chinese characters on the mainland, the romanisation of an entirely different system of writing remains a challenge for linguists and translators. The point to consider is the year of a source, the region, and the origin; all of which will influence the way in which a given source will navigate the challenge of romanisation.

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CELEBRITY EXCLUSIVE! Humanitarian Reporting and the Tabloid News

By Hannah Clutton-Brock Content Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of wartime violence In 1969, Rupert Murdoch and Larry Lamb relaunched The Sun, and with it popularised a new style of intrusive, sensationalised, and outspoken journalism: the tabloid. By creating a new commercially successful model of intrusive journalism, Murdoch and Lamb overturned the status-quo, altering the basic assumptions of the press market, and transforming what types of story were of interest.

In the 1990s, the kind of content associated with the ‘tabloid profile’, an increasingly aggressive and outspoken journalism accompanied by £1 million bingo contests and celebrity exclusives, quickly migrated from its original specific media locations and pervaded other forms of popular culture. This process is known as tabloidization. It is important to consider how these changes in reporting style have affected humanitarianism’s complex yet inextricable link with the media. This article seeks to identify tabloidization as a turning point in the relationship between humanitarian communication and mass media, transforming the way humanitarian issues are framed, how the public perceive and interact with them, and what actors the media frame as legitimate humanitarian actors. It will track the impact of tabloidization on ‘humanitarianism’ as understood to mean the framing of international crises and aiming to galvanise public engagement, rather than considering work on the ground. This article will problematise this relationship in order to demonstrate how simple awareness raising cannot equate to meaningful or productive action if it relies on tabloid values of the stylised, the sensational or the celebrity. It will consider how tabloidization has increased the industry of ‘celebrity humanitarianism’, impacted the reporting of humanitarian issues in across a variety of media forms, and transformed the relationship between the media and the public from educational to representational.

The re-launch of The Sun and the success of the tabloid model constituted a turning point in journalistic style and conduct. As Martin Conboy notes, whilst there is “nothing new about sensation”, Murdoch and Lamb drew together pre-existing characteristics of sensationalised reporting into a commercially successful model. This meant that tabloidization became almost essential to survival of newspapers such as The Express and The Mirror in the face of a rapidly declining interest in print news.

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The BBC and ITV had been successful in providing respectable, entertaining, ‘middlebrow’ content but had failed to satisfy the attitudes of an increasingly consumerist, youthful, and permissive working-class audience. Lifestyle journalism aimed at this audience resulted in a greater interest in the more intimate areas of celebrities’ private lives, with journalists hunting for salacious or scandalous ‘tid-bits’. Forced to contend with this unprecedented level of interest in and criticism of their lifestyle, celebrities turned to ‘do-gooding’, increasing the number of celebrities involved in humanitarian campaigns.

This was, however, not without its benefit to the nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) they support.

The increase in visibility of and interest in celebrity private lives provides them with a social capital that affords a greater mobilising capacity and ability to act as an intermediary between political movements and the public. The Daily Telegraph refers to celebrityled campaigns as ‘guaranteed fundraisers’, citing John Baguley, a charity adviser, who attests to the effectiveness of celebrity involvement: “celebrities help reach audiences that normally would not be reached.” Throughout the twenty-first century, NGOs have utilised celebrity to a greater extent, recruiting celebrities to ‘front’ various campaigns. For example, Oxfam employs full time celebrity liaisons who work with and gather celebrities to matched causes. Whilst celebrities have been involved in humanitarianism prior to this period, Danny Kaye was appointed as the first UN Goodwill Ambassador in 1950 and Band Aid is cited as the first official manifestation of ‘celebrity humanitarianism’ in 1984, these celebrities utilised their fame in service of an existing campaign and kept the crisis itself at the forefront. The growing industry of ‘celebrity humanitarianism’ instead appoints celebrities to ‘front’ campaigns as they need to be re-invented. This places the celebrity rather than the crisis as the central focus of humanitarian communications, relying on an interest in them as an individual to drive interest in a crisis. This fascination with celebrity afforded by the tabloids therefore allows them to utilise their social capital and fan communities in service of humanitarian endeavours, but most often the individual fame of a celebrity is required to direct financial and political action to a humanitarian cause.

Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | CELEBRITY EXCLUSIVE! Goodman and Barnes argue that the growing focus on particular celebrity individuals and popular causes leaves “wider discussions of issues of inequality, political economy, ecology and justice even more to the wayside,” casting celebrities in the formative role of deciding who and what are worthy of being ‘saved’ or ‘developed’. Celebrity and the development of brands has become almost as important - if not more important than - the cause itself, diverting attention from people in need of relief. The focus on individual celebrity as the front for an issue rather than maintaining a focus on the crisis at hand has created a consumer and celebrity-driven development.

Humanitarian reporting becomes celebrity-focused rather than crisis-focused. This has been criticised as turning humanitarianism into a business venture, run more often than not by marketing experts rather than activists or development professionals. In this sense, actors within the celebrity economy, such as marketing executives and agents, are given a greater control over where funding and support is allocated, rather than an objective, needs-based assessment.

Tabloid denigration of journalistic standards has been credited with encouraging journalists to accept greater risks in reporting and fostering less interest in the factual than the sensational. This idea that news should be an ‘entertaining spectacle’ has now carried over to the ways issues are framed by NGOs themselves.

Tabloid culture prioritises the sensational, the scandalous and the salacious. In the 1990s, these tabloid values ceased to be bound by the pages of newspapers such as The Sun, The Star and The Express.

Graeme Turner conceptualises this shift as a turning point in the relationship between the popular and the public sphere. Despite demonisation of the tabloid as denigrating journalistic standards, providing elite journalism with a dark Other against which it could define itself more virtuously, tabloid values of reporting permeated the broadsheet press. The prioritisation of ‘celebrity-focused’ reporting over ‘crisis-focused’ reporting is exemplified by The Times Digital Archive. When searching for terms ‘charity’ and ‘Bob Geldof’, results largely contain titles such as ‘£6m aid promise for Ethiopia’, ‘Screened from the Suffering Children’ and ‘Famine Relief’. However, upon searching for ‘charity’ and ‘Angelina Jolie’, one is met with titles such as ‘A fitting revenge for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt…’, ‘Celebrity Watch’ and ‘We didn’t hang out with other Hollywood kids.’ Contending with the shorter attention spans of contemporary audiences, media titles decide what’s important by deciding what’s first: celebrity first, crisis second. This linguistic structure in news about humanitarian endeavours is therefore significant in shaping the public’s cognition of humanitarian need.

It demonstrates a change in how humanitarian actors mobilise the media and attract the attention of the public, as tabloid values require different framings of humanitarian issues with regards to what is popular or ‘interesting’.

However, KONY 2012 has been criticised for its stylised content, deliberately airbrushed to increase attention-worthiness. The image KONY 2012 creates of child soldiers is not representative of child soldiering as a whole. It depicts all child soldiers as young boys, “turning the girls into sex slaves and the boys into child soldiers,” when in reality nearly 40% of child soldiers are girls. The video is filled with imagery of

In March 2012, an online video, KONY 2012, was launched by Invisible Children, Inc. It campaigned for the arrest of Joseph Kony, the alleged Commanderin-Chief of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), to bring him before the International Criminal Court (ICC). Within six days of the video’s release, it had been watched by over 100 million people, affording it great capacity to inform an understanding of child soldiers and sculpt international efforts to prevent child soldiering. At nearly thirty minutes in length, one might imagine that this video produced by an ‘informed’ humanitarian actor would espouse some of the judicial, political or economic complexities surrounding child soldiering.

very young children staggering under the weight of automatic weaponry, but most child soldiers are 1517 years old and most often do not carry weapons.

It utilises traumatic imagery to shock the public for an emotive response, saying at one point, “He makes them mutilate people’s faces…And he forces them to kill their own parents.” This imagery is alarming, but not accurate: most child soldiers are not implicated in serially committing acts of atrocity, even within the LRA. In the image below, KONY 2012 provides a striking representation of what Lisa Malkki refers to as a “sea of humanity”, using graphics that reflect

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Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | CELEBRITY EXCLUSIVE! of humanitarian communications with the public.

Illustration by Emily Geeson

innumerable faceless African children to present Africa as a homogenous continent of mute victims.

Throughout this article, the relationship between humanitarian actions, the media and the public has been conceptualised as uni-directional, whereby issues are communicated to the public using a range of media tactics and the public go forth and carry out financial or political action as a result.

Hampton attests that tabloidization changed this relationship as it embodies an extreme version of the shift from an educational to a representational ideal: “one which no longer views the reader as an isolated consumer but instead as part of a network of capitalised relations including other entertainment media, celebrity culture and advertising.” A tabloidized humanitarianism is driven by popular culture, celebrity exclusives and public interest. This transforms the relationship between humanitarian actors in the media and the public into a dialectic process of representation, rather than education.

Celebrities wanting to act on behalf of an NGO must first contest with the breadth of pre-existing knowledge about them which the public will use to assess their validity as a goodwill ambassador or fundraiser. NGOs ‘go viral’ by sensationalising inaccurate representations of genuine humanitarian crises. However, simply raising awareness is not always useful if what the public becomes aware of is only a simplified and stylised representation of the issue itself. Humanitarian crises are not the latest ‘celebrity exclusive’, they are not ‘clickbait’, and they must be understood holistically as the complex legal, political, social, and cultural issues that they are.

Scholars such as Malkii and Tanja Mueller have criticised this dehistoricising universalism for its damaging impact on conceptualisations of agency, “replacing the full political citizen with a bundle of basic needs and physical states.” The ability of NGOs to utilise platforms such as YouTube to bypass traditional media has therefore transformed the relationship between humanitarianism and the public as they are able to directly communicate with a much wider audience and exercise greater control over the framing of issues. However, simply creating ‘more attention’ for humanitarian issues is not necessarily effective, as Mark Drumbl attests, “The content of the message itself still really matters.”

Incorrect understandings of the legal, political, and social context around an issue leads to misguided action and ineffective outcomes. Tabloid values that prioritise the story over the fact have therefore negatively impacted the authenticity and accuracy

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On History and Comprehension: The Discourses and Approaches of the Intellectual, Institutional and Public

By Georgia Smith History is perhaps the most communicative of discourses. A diverse collection of popular and intellectual mediations, stories, myths and images produced as collective and individual bodies moving towards social comprehension. As such, these disparate social, political and cultural bodies communicate conflicting yet interrelated conceptions of history and reality, formulated in narratives perpetually vying for ascendency and resulting primarily in a striking cocktail of reality, fantasy and fiction. Discussions of the philosophy and theory of history allow for the exploration of the character of various discourses advanced by intellectual theories, institutional narratives, and myths, as well as their consumption and reconfiguration by the public.

Such an analysis is reliant on a narrative theory of history, one which, rooted in the debate over history’s fundamental character as a science or an art, emphasises the fundamental subjectivity and literary nature of history not as the seat of rationality but a mutable discourse reliant on complex human subjects.

This being a mode of thought inherently divorced from original nineteenth-century philosophies of history as immutable, objective.

arises. In ensuring the viability of communication, theories must mutate. Questioning the significance of academic histories may be a clichéd practice; however, such suspicions are perhaps better reformulated into questions of the immediate practicality of intellectual practice. The perception of a fundamental separation between the spheres of the intellectual, institutional and public is a fiction. Intellectual modes of thought seep into and become suffused with both the public and the institutional, forming the inherited language and conceptual framework in which we conduct ourselves, albeit on the scale of the informal and intimate and conveyed most often viva voce.

Drawing on the intellectual, institutional histories

History as an academic discipline represents only one mode of historical thought. While dependent on strict, yet diverse, rational source-based methodologies, theories of history such as historical materialism, to name one of the most obvious, may also be read as symbolic of a deterministic or teleological approach, hence prone to a fundamental essentialism.

The danger inherent within much post-modern historiography is this continued susceptibility of essentialism – it remains that the intellectual is a human actor, a mediator bestowed with the powers of framing, who perhaps unconsciously desires comprehensibility. As Hayden White suggests, there is an “irreducible and inexpungable element of interpretation” within historiography. The overuse of structuralism as a method of historical causality is further evidence of this, a factor which becomes particularly seductive in relation to the analysis of the function of institutions, especially within a political climate which prioritises blame. The tendency for the complex within intellectual theories, both on the level of micro and macro history, highlights the necessity of distillation which serves as the basis of the relation between intellectual, institutional and public theories and is consequently where conflict

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Illustration by Emily Geeson

Retrospect Journal | Issue 31 | Communication and Conflict | On History and Comprehension are marked by the demands of the political. Taking Jenkins’ thesis of history as a locating and legitimating exercise, the principal function of state histories is the formulation of myth. In this, the exploration of an area that exists in between the strict binaries of “The past” and “history”, areas of fantasy in which the past is both factual and fictitious, may arise. It is in this area of fantasy that legitimacy is located.

The notion of hegemony which dominates the crucial subtext of imperial histories is perhaps the most evocative of this. Much contemporary scholarship explores this notion of institutional amnesia which accompanies the denial of ethical issues relating to Britain’s colonial past. The theory of post-colonial history offers an ideal paradigm through which to explore the relation between the intellectual, institutional and public. The developments in postcolonial historiography offer a natural juxtaposition to standard paternalistic narratives of British colonialism, dependent on a fantasy of the colonial state as civilising and dynamic. In turn, agitations between these narratives lead to a natural expansion of public consciousness, evidenced in the emerging awareness of our political and cultural proximity to the products of colonialism.

To flirt with an apparently absurd theory of public history as contingent on the self allows for further consideration of the notion of history as fantasy.

The interpretation of history by public, private and individual bodies is a highly selective practice. A mode of socialisation and cultural hegemony reliant on stereotypes dictates our responses to narratives, an inherited language and conceptual repertoire, only curtailed further by the demands of the self.

Dicing between reality and the unreal, public philosophies are philosophies in a dual sense in that they symbolise the degree and character of public consciousness and in the fact that they offer an image or guide to which individuals can respond or react, moulding themselves in accordance with the images they reflect. Masculinist reactions offer an intimate

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image of public history as dictated by abstracted selves. Jablonka offers a somewhat essentialised, albeit deeply symbolic analysis of the potential for abstract masculinity as a form of historical causality.

Jablonka cites the devaluation of the father-husband as a causal factor relating to the introduction of France’s 1804 Civil Code and the cultural salience of dandyism as a factor invigorating the rise of an early-twentieth-century militarist culture in central Europe, to name two of several examples. It is the potential for causality embodied in these abstract factors which illustrates the need to transgress the original bounds of the philosophy of history, the consumption of and retaliations to its narratives and images are as tentative as the abstract, the emotional and the imagined.

Lawrence Stone’s mediation on the character of this supposed “new history”, one which observes the twentieth-century shift to alternate objects and subjects of historiography, symbolises the function of history in the present, beyond simply the narrative form it takes. His perception of such history is one of post-impressionist art in which narratives “create a stunning picture of reality, but which examined close up, dissolve into a meaningless blur.” In interrogating the notion of narrative beyond Eric Hobsbawm’s insistence of its function as a method of presentation, we can thus explore the intersections between fantasy, reality and realism. Consequently, noting a secondary instance of communication and conflict, not only do we dispute narratives across social bodies, but we dispute their relation to our personal selves and realities, asking them to become symbolic of something they often are not. Do we simply reject the contentious elements of certain histories to ensure perceptions of our ethical character, only furthering a fantasy based on morality? Well-done histories pose the largest threat to narrative satisfaction. Such perpetual revulsions characterise the conflicting relation between intellectual, institutional and public historical narratives.

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