Impact UK Location: Letchworth

REF impact found 2 Case Studies

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Rediscovering World War I Theatre

Summary of the impact

In the years 1914-19, over 1,000 war plays, pageants and revues were submitted to the Lord Chamberlain's Office for licensing. Dr Andrew Maunder led a project that recovered these since-forgotten plays, introducing modern audiences to a largely unknown dimension of cultural life on the WWI Home Front through performances staged between 2011 and 2013. These allowed audiences to think well beyond the `war poets' and to reappraise their understanding of the war and its culture. School-age and adult audiences have come to understand that, if theatre is cut out of the picture, it is impossible to gain a full and accurate sense of WWI culture and its legacy.

Submitting Institution

University of Hertfordshire

Unit of Assessment

English Language and Literature

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies, Literary Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies

Red Plenty

Summary of the impact

Francis Spufford's book Red Plenty has been acclaimed as an ironic reflection on contemporary problems, despite being apparently devoted to the deadest of issues: central planning in the former USSR. The book has helped stimulate debate about alternative economic strategies, with the title becoming shorthand for non-market forms of organisation, and has contributed to rising interest in Soviet history. But besides achieving these topical resonances, it has been saluted for its innovative fusion of fiction and non-fiction, and its contribution to an ongoing erosion of literary boundaries. It has been released in eight languages and in the USA, with in excess of 25,000 copies sold to date; it has been shortlisted for several major book prizes. Spufford has engaged in extensive public discussion of the work, both at live events and in the broadcast media, and this has sparked voluminous on-line commentary from the wider public.

Submitting Institution

Goldsmiths' College

Unit of Assessment

English Language and Literature

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Literary Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies

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