REBECCA KEY CONTEXT

What type of literature saw a resurgence in the 1930s?

Gothic genre which Rebecca fits in with this through the focus of the present being haunted by the past and the use of atmospheric tension to create tension and ssupense

What does the ambiguity surrounding Maxim’s feeling around the narrator as well as the distance and insecuirty show?

contrasts the typical straightforward narrative of romantic literature

How is the relationship between the narrator and maxim conventional?

initial attraction, courtship and eventual marriage

How does Du Maurier subvert the tradition of the gothic genre?

having an unnamed and unreliable narrator who undergoes significant character development contrasting the idea of a helpless heroine,

How is Danver’s not wholly shown as a typical gothic villian?

her actions are motivated by grief

Who were Du Maurier’s family as a child?

born in 1907 to a famous creative family, grandfather was a novilist and illustrator and her father was an actor

What house in Cornwall was bought in the 1920s?

Ferryside at Bodinnick

Who did Du Maurier marry?

1932 she married Frederick ‘Tommy’ Browning (a military man) she had 3 kids and lived at menability (a manor house outside Fowey for 25 yrs)

What did Du Maurier think about how she should have been born?

a boy, she had a male alter ego named Eric who appeared often

Who had Frederick been married to before?

glamorous, dark haired Jan Ricardo, the suspicion that Frederick remained attracted to her haunted Du Maurier

How did both rebecca and Ricardo sign?

with a great and wonderful R

What happened to Ricardo?

jumped in front of a moving train some time after the novels publication (1944)

What happened when Du Maurier was in Alexandria with Fredericj and the second battalion of the grenadier guard and english expats?

she described them as ‘horrific manchester folk’

What did Du maurier do to her kids in 1937?

left her 4yr old and 3 month old daughters behind and then planned to spend christmas away from them

What is a simialrity between Du maurier and the narrator?

names are typically misspelt

What was Du Maurier unhappy with socially?

the demands of being an officers wife and wished to return home

Where Du maurier and Frederick faithful?

no, Like Maxim and Rebecca

What is assumed about Maurier’s sexuality?

bisexual as she had affairs or ‘intimate relationships’ with actress Gertrude Lawrence and her publishers wife Ellen Doubleday. however, she disliked the term lesbian

How is Maurier’s marriage described

somewhat chilly

Why is Rebecca often compared to jane Eyre

similar themes of memory and social class

What are some early moves towards welfare?

the Jarrow Crusade

When was the struggle with the great depression?

between 1929-1939, particularly hit the north east, scotland and wales (peaked around 1932)

What is the epitomy of the crumbling clas structure?

1936 abdication crisis when Ed VIII abdictaes to marry american divorcee Wallis Simpson

What us an example of the rise of british fascism?

1932 - Oswakd Mosley forms the BUF, at its peak it had 50,000 members, but was banned outright in 1940 with Mosley and other members being jailed for the remainder of the war

What is the Gresford disaster?

2934a deadly explosion that ripped through gresford coal mine in North Wales, killing 260

When was the wall street crash?

October 1929

What happened to women in 1928?

if over 21, can vote

What happens to women in 1920?

women at Oxford Uni allowed to recieve degrees

What party rose in the 1920s?

labour (eg 1926 general strike) first labour gov was in 1924 under ramsay MCDonald

What happened to newspapers?

remained crucial with a shift to ‘mass media’ and ‘mass culture’

What happened to womens clothing in the 1930s?

silhouettes got longer, more conservative ‘mermiad’, figure hugging and feminine silhouette