Culture Of The 1950s

Quirke series is more about Ireland than character or plot

They’re about Ireland, or, rather, the Ireland of John Banville’s (the author behind the pseudonym) imaginings – or perhaps of his childhood. Banville’s Ireland is a dank, doleful place, of alcohol and repressed longings, only a few of them legal.

A Death in Summer lacks internal credibility, and it also lacks an interesting plot. The requisite piggish rich man – a press lord, no less! – has been found in an apparent suicide. That he is still gripping the shotgun that blew his head off immediately tells Quirke and his friend the police inspector, Hackett, that the true name of the crime is murder.

So far, so mediocre, but then Quirke falls immediately in lust with the piggish rich man’s newly-minted widow, which seems highly unlikely – she is French and tres chic, he’s Irish and sodden – but it does have the advantage of chewing up some pages.

There are nearly as many potential suspects as in Murder on the Orient Express, and all of them have a motive or two for bumping off the utterly reprehensible Jewell. There’s also an odd name-check of John Ford’s The Searchers, which turns out to have nothing to do with the story. Perhaps it’s just a back-door salute from one Irish artist to another.

When an orphanage is introduced, run by a priest who seems a little too cagey for his own good ("The priest was studying him closely, running ghostly fingers over the braille of Quirke’s soul,,,"), it’s obvious that Black is going for the trifecta of modern perversion, and the rest of the novel runs true to preconceptions. The guilty party provides no surprises, and Black seems to serve notice that he’s growing noticeably tired of the nuts and bolts of the genre.

"I suppose he won’t let that alone until he’s caused the usual mayhem and annoyed powerful people and got himself roughed up and set everyone against him?" says one character of Quirke, in deadpan parody of the central motivating factor of every noir novel of the last 70 years. "He thinks a good man can set the world to right, all the while not seeing that the last thing folks want is the world to be as it should be."

What really interests Black is people – their inability to rise above the rut they dig for themselves, and their resulting quiet despair. "She was a solitary, as he was," thinks Quirke about his daughter, "and they would both have to accept it was so.

Australian Culture and Fashion in the 1950s « Covelli Boutique & Shoes

Settlers from Britain first began to arrive in Australia a in 1788. British influence therefore weighed strongly on Australian culture immediately thereafter. Besides cultural influences, the British model is also the basis of Australia’s legal and political systems.

Up until World War II, Britain remained the dominating cultural influence in Australia. Britons also dominated the make-up of Australian society – most of Australia’s citizens were either born in Britain, or had British descendants. In the years following the war, British subjects were encouraged to migrate to Australia under an ‘assisted package’ scheme, which helped with the cost of migrating to Australia and provided housing and employment options upon arrival. Between 1945 and 1972, over one million British migrants settled in Australia.

Before 1945, many people, including Australians themselves, considered Australia to be nothing more than a British colony; a nation whose national identity was relatively indistinct from the British. During this period of Australia’s history, our modes of entertainment, food, fashion, sporting culture and our social values and attitudes were largely dictated by British culture.

One of the most significant changes to have taken place in Australian society since the end of WWII, however, was the cultural shift from British influences to American. As the American way of life was projected further into Australia via popular culture, it would rapidly alter the ways we spent our money, entertained ourselves, dressed and socialized. Eventually, many of our British cultural legacies would give way to new American ideals. American films, music and fashion became wildly popular.

The 1950s were prosperous, vibrant years for Australians. These years marked a transition from the conservatism, restraint and formality of the 1940s, to a freer, looser, more informal style. Throughout the decade it became much more acceptable for males to dress ‘for show’ and both sexes became much more fashion conscious.

Hats for women in the 1950′s were a major fashion accessory, the pillbox hat and hats with floral patterns were particularly popular. Hats added the final touch of 1950s glamour to a woman or girl’s outfit, particularly in the early fifties. Last year’s dress or suit could be updated easily with a new hat or a fresh ornament such as flowers, an autumnal bunch of acorns and leaves, or a bunch of cherries.

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