Proposing a Post-heritage Critical Framework:The Crown, Ambiguity, and Media Self-consciousness

Abstract

This article proposes a new critical framework through which to analyze television period drama, recognizing elements that indicate a more progressive point of view than many previous scholarly responses have acknowledged. It begins by assessing the seminal works of Andrew Higson and Claire Monk in the field of period drama, adopting the latter’s term of “post-heritage” to identify an alternative critical perspective. The five guiding elements of the proposed post-heritage framework are then outlined, with reference to pertinent critical works that identify these in period dramas and other production. A preliminary case study of The Crown is then offered, through which the post-heritage framework is demonstrated as an aesthetic methodological process. The Crown’s use of the media within its narrative and conceptual ambiguity are considered particularly closely. The article concludes by suggesting the wider applications for the post-heritage critical framework, and potential further study relating to The Crown.