Constructions of Fascism in British Cultural History: From Fancy-Dressers to Missing Links

Abstract

This article traces the historical development of how images of the fascist or right-wing radical have been constructed in British culture, trying to assess what social functions these constructions have served. It shows that, apart from largely tending to be denied, inter-war fascism was and is constructed as the upper classes dressing up, while the post-war radical right was and is constructed as the underclass dumbing down. Both constructions, it argues, are used to ‘other’ and exclude radical tendencies and the groups they are ascribed to from the middle-class consensus of British culture, and serve to avoid confronting the complex web of motivations behind radical-right behaviour. In so doing, both constructions are used to stabilise dominant versions of British national identity, in particular the myth of Britain’s/England’s essentially moderate and freedomloving character. Drawing on a wide range of cultural examples, the article also seeks to make a theoretical point about the necessity to approach the phenomenon of British fascism from a cultural studies/history angle, which will put the discussions and findings of previous political and historical research into perspective (and locate them all in the moving equilibrium of society)