Noël Coward and Transatlantic Style
- Location
- Cadbury Research Library, Muirhead
- Dates
- Thursday 15 October 2015 (17:30-19:00)
Birmingham alumnus Faye Hammill, Professor of English at the University of Strathclyde, will give a talk about ocean travel and transatlantic exchange in Noël Coward's stage and literary career.
"We shall soon be wondering on which side of the Atlantic we live," wrote a reviewer of Coward's London Calling in 1923. The comment was prompted by the frequent exchanges of actors between England and America, and by the increase in transatlantic broadcasting. During the 1920s and 1930s, Coward made many voyages to New York, often in the company of other entertainers and writers whose work was being produced on Broadway. In media coverage of their glamorous lifestyle, the ocean liner was emblematic of modernity and cosmopolitanism. But during the postwar decades, Coward's continued preference for sea rather than air travel revealed nostalgia for a disappearing world of leisured elegance. Shipboard romance was his theme in late works such as the American-style musical Sail Away and the story "Bon Voyage". This talk explores the importance of transatlantic exchange to Coward's career as it unfolded on the international stage.
Part of the College of Arts and Law Book to the Future Festival 2015
Drinks reception in Muirhead atrium 5.30-6.00pm followed by lecture 6.00-7.00pm