Also worth watching...

Have a look at Life in Squares on BBC iPlayer. It's a three part mini series dramatising the artistic and romantic tussles of Virginia Woolf and her friends, now known as the Bloomsbury Set.

First episode expires on Wednesday! 

Is there anybody out there?

Hope you're all enjoying your holidays - even more now that your excellent results have come through. Very proud of you!

Now that's you're Year 13s, it's time to become experts on all sorts of matters... starting with Socrates, Buddha and Confucius, all of whom are relevant to your Year 13 studies.

I strongly recommend watching this series over the summer. We can't wait til term starts as it EXPIRES in three weeks.
It's interesting and easy to grasp. The first two episodes are below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b064jf28/genius-of-the-ancient-world-1-buddha

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b065gv2m/genius-of-the-ancient-world-2-socrates

Heart of Darkness: useful links

A brief overview on the European colonisation of Africa.


A more extended documentary


A great lecture on Heart of Darkness.

Apocalypse Now: Heart of Darkness set in Vietnam...

Here's the full movie.


Often cited as one of the greatest films of all time. Certainly one of the great war movies. All star cast, ridiculous budget and based on Conrad's philosophically challenging book...


Watch on a big screen if you can.


And here, in the documentary of the making of Apocalypse Now, Director Francis Ford Coppola describes the 'anxiety of influence' of making a great movie... a good intro!

Modernism at a glance

Philosophical Foundations

Modernists reacted strongly against the belief that material progress always benefits humanity. The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer did much to debunk 19th century optimism, and characterized the universe as inherently irrational. Modernists’ questioning of philosophical Rationalism, which took for granted creation's underlying logic, also found support in the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, whose existentialist philosophy held that reality originated and ended in individual experience. Many Modernists took a dim view of religion, and cited the theories of Charles Darwin as the true natural order. Karl Marx’s theories inspired allegiance among modernists who saw capitalism as destructive and degrading to the human spirit.

Influences in Literature

Modernist literature sought to explode the confines of realism, and utilized strategies like stream of consciousness monologues. The theories of Sigmund Freud, with the emphasis on subconscious motivations, was influential to Modernist writers. The Russian Fyodor Dostoevsky explored his characters' mental travails and spiritual anguish, a focus that inspired Modernist writers such as Knut Hamsun, Marcel Proust and James Joyce. The American poet Walt Whitman revolutionized the concept of poetic form, and his “Leaves of Grass” served as a foundational text for Modernist poetry. French writer Arthur Rimbaud inspired Modernists with his symbolic poems and unconventional, obscene subject matter.

Influences in Art and Architecture

Modernism in the visual arts, often associated with post-World War II Abstract Expressionism, has an extensive pedigree that includes movements like Cubism, Surrealism, Impressionism and Fauvism. These movements can be traced to Edouard Manet, whose experiments in form and color built upon the Pre-Raphaelite’s refutation of realism. Modernist architecture, which includes the Bauhaus group and Brutalist style, sought to dispense with the extravagant indulgences of previous styles. Walter Gropius, the mastermind of the Bauhaus, studied the designs of William Morris, who sought to combine utility with a design aesthetic reflective of the proletarian struggle. Brutalism, embodied in the constructions of Le Corbusier, drew upon Utopian socialism in an effort to bring practical efficiency to urban planning.

Influences in Music

Schopenhauer's ideas had an influence on Richard Wagner and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the two composers most responsible for the development of Modernism in music. Rimsky-Korsakov served as the personal instructor of Igor Stravinky, whose “Rites of Spring” stands as one of the most recognizable Modernist compositions. Stravinsky also acknowledged the importance of Wagner, whose bombastic operas embodied the concept of the “total work of art” that Stravinsky himself would elaborate upon. Arnold Schoenberg, the Modernist composer who developed the concepts of atonality and musical minimalism, made his own first experiments in form through interpretations of Wagner’s work.

Prof Brian Cox on time travel - 5 min vid

Relativity and time travel, beautifully illustrated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O8lBIcHre0

Macbeth trailer

What do you notice about the portrayal of 1) Macbeth and 2) Lady Macbeth in this new, exciting version of Macbeth?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgH_OnrYlCk