| OK, Graham, so let's check we both know what we're supposed to be doing. |
| OK. |
| So, for the university's open day, |
| we have to plan a display on British life and literature in the mid-19th century. |
| That's right. |
| But we'll have some people to help us find the materials and set it up, remember. |
| For the moment, we just need to plan it. |
| Good. |
| So have you gathered who's expected to come and see the display? |
| Is it for the people studying English, or students from other departments? |
| I'm not clear about it. |
| Nor me. |
| That was how it used to be, |
| but it didn't attract many people, so this year it's going to be part of an open day, |
| to raise the university's profile. |
| It'll be publicised in the city, to encourage people to come and find out something of what goes on here. |
| And it's included in the information that's sent to people who are considering applying to study here next year. |
| Presumably some current students and lecturers will come? |
| I would imagine so, |
| but we've been told to concentrate on the other categories of people. |
| Right. |
| We don't have to cover the whole range of 19th-century literature, do we? |
| No, it's entirely up to us. |
| I suggest just using Charles Dickens. |
| That's a good idea. |
| Most people have heard of him, and have probably read some of his novels, |
| or seen films based on them, |
| so that's a good lead-in to life in his time. |
| Exactly. |
| And his novels show the awful conditions that most people had to live in, don't they: |
| he wanted to shock people into doing something about it. |
| Did he do any campaigning, other than writing? |
| Yes, he campaigned for education and other social reforms, and gave talks, |
| but I'm inclined to ignore that and focus on the novels. |
| Yes, I agree. |
| OK, so now shall we think about a topic linked to each novel? |
| Yes. I've printed out a list of Dickens's novels in the order they were published, |
| in the hope you'd agree to focus on him! |
| You're lucky I did agree! |
| Let's have a look. |
| OK, the first was The Pickwick Papers, published in 1836. |
| It was very successful when it came out, wasn't it, |
| and was adapted for the theatre straight away. |
| There's an interesting point, though, |
| that there's a character who keeps falling asleep, |
| and that medical condition was named after the book - Pickwickian Syndrome. |
| So why don't we use that as the topic, |
| and include some quotations from the novel? |
| Right, Next is Oliver Twist. |
| There's a lot in the novel about poverty. |
| But maybe something less obvious... |
| Well Oliver is taught how to steal, isn't he? |
| We could use that to illustrate the fact that very few children went to school, |
| particularly not poor children, so they learnt in other ways. |
| Good idea. |
| What's next? |
| Maybe Nicholas Nickleby. |
| Actually he taught in a really cruel school, didn't he? |
| That's right. |
| But there's also the company of touring actors that Nicholas joins. |
| We could do something on theatres and other amusements of the time. |
| We don't want only the bad things, do we? |
| OK. |
| What about Martin Chuzzlewit? |
| He goes to the USA, doesn't he? |
| Yes, and Dickens himself had been there a year before, |
| and drew on his experience there in the novel. |
| I wonder, though... |
| The main theme is selfishness, |
| so we could do something on social justice? |
| Hmm... No, too general, let's keep to your idea. |
| I think it would work well. |
| He wrote Bleak House next - that's my favourite of his novels. |
| It's mine too. |
| His satire of the legal system is pretty powerful. |
| That's true, but think about Esther, the heroine. |
| As a child she lives with someone she doesn't know is her aunt, |
| who treats her very badly. |
| Then she's very happy living with her guardian, |
| and he puts her in charge of the household. |
| And at the end she gets married and her guardian gives her and her husband a house, |
| where of course they're very happy. |
| Yes, I like that. |
| What shall we take next? |
| Little Dorrit? |
| Old Mr Dorrit has been in a debtors' prison for years... |
| So was Dickens's father, wasn't he? |
| That's right. |
| What about focusing on the part when Mr Dorrit inherits a fortune, |
| and he starts pretending he's always been rich? |
| Good idea. |
| So, next, we need to think about what materials we want to illustrate each issue. |
| That's going to be quite hard. |