National Fairground Archive presents The Sheffield Jungle

Popular Culture and Ethics

The moral lens of society is always changing - how do the events of Sheffield Jungle appear now? What has changed? These are difficult questions to answer and can still divide opinion. Alongside this debate is the literary and cultural adaptation of prevailing attitudes and experiences from spectacles such as the the Sheffield Jungle. This section of the website will look at the changing moral climate and its inter-relationship with popular culture and literature.

• Performance was at the heart of the Jungle - this page provides an introduction to performance and a guide to visual resources within the NFA photographic collections.

• A Damien Hirst retrospective ran through 2011 at Leeds Gallery and will feature as a key Tate exhibition for 2012 - this article compares Hirst and Bostock looking at ethics, controversy and the blurred boundary between art and showmanship.

• The cultural dynamics of menageries and zoos are discussed to determine where definitions merge and paths diverge.

• Primate proximity - too close for comfort? - A look at recent films working our fears of a primate revolution, and a comparison with Bostock's primate obsessions.