Month: August 2022

Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922)

Robbe-Grillet, a French novelist and filmmaker, is considered the originator of the nouveau roman, or “new novel.” This genre, also called the antinovel, dispenses with conventional notions of plot, character, style, theme, psychology, chronology, and message. In Robbe-Grillet’s The Erasers, for example, a detective searches for the killer in a murder that has not yet occurred, only to discover that he will be the murderer. The novel is based on what legend from ancient Greece? Discuss

The Fabergé Eggs

The Fabergé eggs were 50 jeweled “Easter eggs” created for the Russian tsars by famed jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé between 1885 and 1917. Tsar Alexander III commissioned the first egg as an Easter surprise for his wife, Maria Fedorovna. The tsarina was so delighted with the gift that Alexander established Fabergé as the Imperial Goldsmith and requested an egg each year thereafter, stipulating only that it contain a surprise. Nicholas II continued the tradition. Where are the eggs today? Discuss

Leo Frank Lynched (1915)

Frank was a Jewish-American factory manager accused of murdering his employee, 13-year-old Mary Phagan, in 1913. Frank was convicted, but when Governor John M. Slaton examined evidence that had not been presented at the trial, he commuted Frank’s death sentence. In the public outrage that followed, a group with ties to the Ku Klux Klan kidnapped and lynched Frank. The highly publicized ordeal turned the spotlight on anti-Semitism in the US. Frank’s trial led to the founding of what organization? Discuss

Davy Crockett (1786)

Crockett was a celebrated 19th-century American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. After serving in the War of 1812, Crockett was elected to the Tennessee legislature and later won three terms in the US House of Representatives. Though his dress, language, and backwoods wit gained him popularity, he failed to win reelection in 1835 and left for Texas, where he died at the age of 49 in the Battle of the Alamo. What caused a resurgence in Crockett’s popularity in the 1950s? Discuss

Flamenco

Flamenco is a Spanish music and dance style typically associated with the Andalusian Romani, or Gitano. It is vigorous and rhythmic, characterized by colorful costumes, erotic movements, foot stamping, and hand clapping. The result is a brilliant, noisy, and passionate dance. Flamenco music is believed to have emerged in the early 19th century from the cante jondo—”deep song”—of Andalusia, a highly emotional and tragic type of song accompanied by guitar. What is “nuevo flamenco”? Discuss

First Transatlantic Telegraph Sent (1858)

After the introduction of the working telegraph in 1839, the idea that countries and continents could be connected by a communications network became an exciting possibility. A working telegraph could transmit in mere minutes messages that had once taken weeks to deliver by sea. England and France were linked by submarine cable in 1850, but it took several attempts over the next eight years before a lasting connection could be maintained across the Atlantic. How long was this cable operational? Discuss