Description
The growing debate over British national identity, and the place of "Englishness" within it, raises crucial questions about multiculturalism, postimperial culture and identity, and the past and future histories of globalization. However, discussions of Englishness have too often been limited by insular conceptions of national literature, culture, and history, which serve to erase or marginalize the colonial and postcolonial locations in which British national identity has been articulated. This volume breaks new ground by drawing together a range of disciplinary approaches in order to resituate the relationship between British national identity and Englishness within a global framework. Ranging from the literature and history of empire to analyses of contemporary culture, postcolonial writing, political rhetoric, and postimperial memory after 9/11, this collection demonstrates that far from being parochial or self-involved, the question of Englishness offers an important avenue for thinking about the politics of national identity in our postcolonial and globalized world.
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Nine papers presented by MacPhee (English, West Chester U. of Pennsylvania, US) and Poddar (English, Aarhus U., Denmark) provide varied takes on issues of British and English identities as situated within the context of the United Kingdom's imperial history and its legacies. Papers include examinations of formulations of British identity in Ireland and South Africa, contradictions between nationalism and imperialism as evidenced in the controversies over the issuance of British passports to imperial subjects of India following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, contemporary British identity and emergent Middle Eastern nationalisms, representations of British Asian youth in the wake of the London bombings of July 2005, the lived experience of Englishness by women residents of London, identity in the political rhetorics of the Labour and Conservative parties, and the elision of the power relationship of the US/UK "special relationship" in the representation of British national identity found in the proposed memorial garden for British victims of the September 11th attacks. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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