The 1970s Project

• Conference 2008
• Interviews
• Seminar Series
  • Dominic Sandbrook
  • Steve Chibnall
  • Malcolm Le Grice
  • Dr Andrew Spicer
  • Prof James Chapman
  • Dr Dominic Symonds
  • BBFC
  • David Curtis

The introduction to the paper highlighted a number of key 1970s cinematic texts including Get Carter, A Clockwork Orange, Performance and Straw Dogs, all of which evolved from literature published in the previous decade. It was argued that the urban decay, social breakdown and economic stagnation presented in these films suggest the 1970s but the films do in fact address 1960s issues. This introduction helped to suggest the problems of periodisation and the dangers in over-reliance on decades as discrete entities which do not allow for overlap.

The paper then discussed the economic and social background of the 1970s period and the sense of pessimism and national decline evident in many of the cultural texts of the period. It was argued that the 1970s was a period which has its cultural roots in a range of earlier periods and which can only be understood in a post-war context. This paper positioned the notion of a long 1970s which had its roots very firmly in the 1960s counterculture movement and even deeper in the immediate post-war period.