Kipling and Empire
The poem that argues Western nations have a duty to rule and “civilize” other parts of the world.
What is The White Man’s Burden?
The essay in which Orwell describes being forced by a crowd to shoot a working elephant while serving in colonial Burma.
What is Shooting an Elephant?
The Monty Python sketch in which members of the British upper class compete in absurd events such as shooting themselves with the starting pistol.
What is “Upper-Class Twit of the Year”?
The term describing the optimistic cultural movement associated with Britain in the 1990s.
What is Cool Britannia?
The Spice Girls hit from 1996 that begins with the line “Yo, I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want.”
What is “Wannabe”?
The South Asian country that was the most important colony of the British Empire and the main setting for Kipling’s work.
What is India?
The essay in which Orwell describes witnessing the execution of a Burmese prisoner during British colonial rule.
What is A Hanging?
The Monty Python sketch in which a coal miner embarrasses his playwright parents.
What is “Working-Class Playwright”?
The British music movement that became a symbol of Cool Britannia in the 1990s.
What is Britpop?
The British band that released the song “Supersonic” in 1994.
Who are Oasis?
The major city of British India where Kipling was born in 1865.
What is Bombay (Mumbai)?
The profession Orwell held while working in Burma, described in several essays.
What is a police officer?
The type of physical comedy used in “Upper-Class Twit of the Year,” where contestants run into walls, fall into water, and accidentally shoot themselves.
What is slapstick?
The two bands that became the most famous representatives of Britpop.
Who are Blur and Oasis?
The Oasis song from 1995 that asks the listener, “You’re gonna be the one that saves me?”
What is “Wonderwall”?
The Kipling poem in which a British soldier longs to return to the East.
What is Mandalay?
The birth name of the writer later known as George Orwell.
Who is Eric Arthur Blair?
The type of humour used in “Working-Class Playwright,” where Monty Python imitates the style of D. H. Lawrence while reversing the usual class roles.
What is parody?
The Blur song about club culture and lad culture that became one of the major Britpop hits of the 1990s.
What is “Girls and Boys”?
The Blur song from 1997 famous for its loud chorus shouting “Woo-hoo!”
What is “Song 2”?
The Kipling poem about a humble Indian water carrier praised by British soldiers for his courage and loyalty.
What is Gunga Din?
The modern name of Burma.
What is Myanmar?
The type of humour used when Monty Python portrays the upper class as incompetent fools in order to criticize British society.
What is satire?
The major political event some critics link to the later collapse of the optimism associated with Cool Britannia.
What is Brexit?
The band that won the famous 1995 “Battle of Britpop” when their single “Country House” outsold Oasis’s “Roll With It.”
Who are Blur?