Orwell and Englishness

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Accounts of Orwell frequently emphasize the ‘Englishness’ of both the man and his writing. However, ‘Englishness’ was not merely a tradition he drew upon for the forms and values of his work, but one he reinterpreted and exploited for political purposes. His insistence that patriotism could be used by the socialist movement is a distinctive contribution to the effort by sections of the English left to reinterpret national identity and mobilize it against fascism. Orwell selected and combined established images of ‘Englishness’ to figure the English as tolerant, cohesive, and resistant to elaborate theories. His representations of England are, however, contradictory, encompassing a simultaneous commitment to the modern towns of the ‘technical experts’, the urban working class, and the rural order of his Edwardian childhood. The article explores these tensions using the model of the ‘three Englands’ outlined in Priestley's English Journey and argues that, although Orwell's texts remain diverse in their commitments, he suggests that socialism itself will resolve these tensions.