British National Identity Research Articles

The Johnson factor: British national identity and Boris Johnson

The Johnson factor: British national identity and Boris Johnson

John Keats’s Geographical Writing and Construction of British National Identity

British romantic poets generally illustrate distinctive geographical writing characteristics. Among them, John Keats is a representative in composing geographical space from a multi-dimensional perspective, either real or imaginary, thus illustrating the natural aesthetic characteristics of his poetry and the poet’s own humanistic thoughts and political concerns. In his poems, Keats not only wrote about the landscape of English natural geographical appearance, including forests, grasslands, etc., which highlighted his love for Britain and pride in folk customs, but also focused on the human landscape represented by castles and churches, which highlighted the central position of England within Great Britain and the anticipation of integrating Scotland under English control. Keats is not confined to a particular moment or a scene, but detached from reality and creating fantasy to incorporate elements of magical mythology in order to fictionalize the natural geographic environment including nature, river, mountains and human geography like castles, thus highlighting his Hellenized Britain and publicizing the civilized image of the Great Britain. On the other hand, he also highlighted the rationality and order of Britain through the mapping of the East, and provided a rational explanation for its Eastern colonization.

Sport, Film and National Culture

Sport, Film and National Culture, edited by Seán Crosson, provides fourteen contributions to the discussion of how sport has been used within film as a tool to promote national culture. As Crosson notes in his introduction, “[S]port films are rarely primarily about sport” (3). He argues that sport films typically lack global impact but make up for this at the national level. Be that as this may, filmography featuring sport can help promote national cultures on a global level—if nothing else, educating and providing insight of a particular national culture to a global audience.The book is split into three parts: “Sport, Cinema, and National Culture in the USA,” “The European Experience,” and “Beyond Hollywood and Europe.” With ten out of the fourteen chapters focusing on American and European case studies, it does feel Western and Global North heavy. Crosson acknowledges this to a point in the introduction while mentioning India, Australia, and China (8). He also appears to classify Ireland as falling outside the European category. If this was the intention, then the justification for it should have been provided. If not, then greater clarity here would have been beneficial.The first part of the book, focusing on the United States, is the strongest. Throughout these four chapters, the reader is guided through explorations in changing attitudes toward American football (Chapter 1), the sexualization of America (Chapter 2), the journey of Black civil rights (Chapter 3), and then sexuality (Chapter 4). These chapters as a section provide the reader with an analysis of different matters, which America has navigated through up to the present day, and the part film has played in developing and communicating these issues. Gina Daddario's chapter, in particular, provides the reader with a fascinating analysis of how modern-day films such as Battle of the Sexes can be used to reimagine events and people's lives.The second part, focusing on Europe, provides chapters on films from Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Great Britain. The chapters focusing on soccer and the Third Reich and cricket in Great Britain are particularly strong in the critical analysis provided. Rebeccah Dawson's analysis of The Big Game demonstrates how even a film that is not rich in explicit propaganda was still used as a tool by the Nazis to promote and normalize the “picture of a sublime, utopian German nation to the world,” combining two powerful and preferred tools of film and sport (124).The third and final part of the book provides chapters focusing on New Zealand, Brazil, Ethiopia, and Taiwan. With the modern-day political tension surrounding Taiwan, Ting-Ying Lin's chapter on how effective modern film has been in reconstructing Taiwanese national identity is an important read for any scholar assessing contemporary identity struggles. Like Stephen Glynn's chapter on cricket and British national identity, Micheal W. Thomas's chapter regarding Ethiopia draws reference to how the synthesis of sport and film provides an opportunity for previously subjugated nations to assert sporting dominance over their past rulers.It is a credit to Crosson as editor and the contributors that a variety of approaches are used across the book in providing analysis in each chapter, which keeps the reader engaged and avoids a universal formulaic approach to each chapter. Moreover, the filmographies are not limited to cinematic feature films. Rather, in some chapters, film includes short recordings of events. This book achieves what it sets out to do—help the reader consider and understand how sport can be used in film to configure and inform a variety of national cultures. In doing so, the book contributes to sociology, anthropology, media, and cultural studies and should be of interest to sports historians as well as scholars beyond the sport history field.

English Landscapes

English Landscapes

The Distinction among Colonialism, Imperialism and Racism: Conrad’s Subversion and Rewriting of Traditional British National Identity

Traditional British adventure fiction often portrays British citizens as noble, civilized, upright and brave colonial gentlemen. Having known the nature of colonization and colonizers, Conrad subverts such discourse and tries to rewrite traditional British national identity. However, because he is a man who opposes colonialism, but supports imperialism and racism, the British national identity that Conrad portrays remains the elements related to imperialism and racism and reflects his own understanding to the implication of gentleman. The ideal British national identity in his mind is the imperial gentleman with pure British descent and humanitarian spirit and brave enough to take the responsibility.

National Myth in UK–EU Representations by British Conservative Prime Ministers from Churchill to Johnson

Britain’s withdrawal of its EU membership has a number of political and economic implications for UK–EU relations. In seeking to understand the 2016 EU referendum outcome, it is insightful to study the historical development of discourses representing the UK–EU relationship. Doing so reveals the trends of British exceptionalism and British Euroscepticism as integral to these discourses. Applying a diachronic approach, this paper examines ten speeches by nine Conservative Prime Ministers (PMs) held at the annual Conservative Party Conferences from 1945 to 2020. The speeches include, among others, those by Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, David Cameron and Boris Johnson. The qualitative analysis traces the discursive strategies employed by PMs in their construction of the Conservative narrative of national myth, focusing especially on the issues of British national identity in relation to Europe. Methods of Discourse Historical Analysis (DHA) and Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA) are applied in order to identify strategies employed by PMs as tools of persuasion for the purpose of consolidating political power and promoting their policies. This study has identified three major interrelated strategies—myth, ally and enemy creation—which are used to narrate the story of Britain’s relationship with Europe as a potential member of the Union, as a member, and up to its efforts to leave the EU.

Female Masculinity in the Embodied Beowulf Wetlands: A New, Radical, Ecofeminist Approach

This article argues that the embodied characterization of Grendel’s mother offers us an alternative heroic model for women, from the titular hero, Beowulf, around whose heroic life and legacy the Old English poem is structured and more usually celebrated. In doing so, it addresses the problematic legacy of the heroic, masculinist poem and its pedagogical role as a canonical text for English literature and national identity which also informs our cultural attitudes to gender-based violence. This article examines female masculinity in the embodied Beowulf wetlands to recover an alternative, powerful, legacy for feminism. Grounded within previous feminist, queer, ecofeminist, and ecocritical literary and theoretical scholarship, and the recent feminist translation of Beowulf, my analyses of the Old English poem is situated within the newly emerging, embodied contexts of what I term radical ecofeminism. Radical ecofeminist readings respond to the violence shaping early medieval female literary identities and landscapes within embodied configurations of gender, race, and the environment, and reveal situated knowledge, hitherto, denied to us because these identities and their histories have been elided or subsumed. Key to understanding how knowledge production is coercively shaped by masculinist frameworks of gender, language, and the environment, this article turns to fluidity as a theoretical and socially effective space to demonstrate how gendered configurations are framed by violence. The linguistic analysis of the Old English word fæst (solid, fixed) reveals how its usage in the poem creates contrast between (masculine-dominated) civilization and (feminine-dominated) wildness to safeguard masculine civilization against un-fæst femininity in all its destabilizing forms. This article concludes to show how the historical suppression and control of women and non-binary identities has been maintained through spatial configurations of heteronormative masculinity which recreate successive versions of male leadership in locations of their situated authority.

A Post-Colonial Re-Reading of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe

The imperial project started to influence English national identity as early as the mid-seventeenth century, and the English began to relate their national prominence to their colonial activities, whether in trade or in the acquisition of foreign territories, throughout the eighteenth century. However, England experienced its share of anxieties on the road to imperial "greatness" in its dealings with both other European powers and its native subjects. The British people's tendency to examine themselves and their international achievements with intense pride helped to neutralize those anxieties, much like Crusoe's imagined responses to possible dangers alleviate his fictional forebodings. The English ameliorated their concerns about their international position by becoming an ever more self-referential society, thinking more highly of themselves on account of their contact with colonized peoples, as is epitomized in the personality of Crusoe. To the fictional Crusoe, the experience of his relationship with Friday validates his self-worth and his native culture more than anything else. Robinson Crusoe's affirmation of colonial power through the assertion of his authority over a particular (othered) individual corresponds with, and epitomizes, England's trading and territorial empire during the eighteenth century and the consequent effects on British subjectivity, at a time when the British were struggling to set up a trading empire and challenging other European powers for territory and markets abroad. Robinson Crusoe successfully resolves the insecurities relating to Britain's colonial activities by asserting, through Crusoe's character, the superior nature of the English subject.

Arthurian Influence in the Lord of the Rings

J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved Lord of the Rings has been considered one of the greatest works of English literature. This work analyzes Tolkien's inspiration and motivation in his writing process by situation middle-earth in the context of postwar England. Evaluation Tolkien's letters reveal his affinity for Arthurian legend, and his desire to reinvent it to create a myth that was distinctly English. A comparison of the two bodies of legend reveals similar Archetypal elements and characterizations that give Tolkien's legendarium credibility and weight. Through Sauron's destruction of middle-earth, Tolkien reveals his concerns for a modern, industrialized England and the consequences of war. In The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien reinvents the legend of Arthur into a synthesis of English national identity and exigency for the future.

The Queen of Propaganda: Boudica’s Representation in Empire

Boudica was an Iceni queen c. 60 CE in Roman-occupied Britain who revolted against the Roman empire. While there is a scarcity of primary sources that document her life, Boudica has remained a dominant figure in conceptualisations of British national identity. This paper examines the works of the Roman historians, the archaeological record, and the depictions of Boudica in different periods and analyses the ability of historians to record events without being influenced by the ideology of their contemporary periods. Through a comparative examination of sources, this paper argues that Boudica should not be approached as a verifiable historical figure but as a tool to understand imperial propaganda.

This Is England 2021: Staging England and Englishness in Contemporary Theatre

AbstractThis article explores the ways in which contemporary theatre is engaging with English national questions. In the context of the current devolutionary movements in Britain, I apply a national specificity, focusing on plays and performances which address the politics of just one of the three nations within Britain: England. While this study of the specifics of England and Englishness is already well-established in literary studies (Gardiner) and political science (Kenny; Nairn), there is yet to be a sustained critical engagement with England in theatre studies. Following a discussion of Jez Butterworth’sJerusalem(2009) in light of its planned West End revival in 2022, I then turn to two recent theatrical representations of England in Mike Bartlett’sAlbion(2017 and 2020) and the Young Vic’sMy Englandshorts (2019), which I propose offer more rigorous, reflexive explorations into English national identity. As questions over England’s cultural and political representation become increasingly loaded and difficult to navigate, I suggest that the beginnings of this English national register in the theatre marks an attempt to nuance these debates, opening a productive space for critical inquiry.

Fuzzy Frontiers? Testing the Fluidity of National, Partisan and Brexit Identities in the Aftermath of the 2016 Referendum

British and English national identities have long been considered to have porous boundaries whereby English individuals consider the terms more or less interchangeable. However, there is no empirical evidence to demonstrate whether primary feelings of either Britishness or Englishness are highly fluid within-individuals or whether individuals are consistent in their perceptions of their British or English identity. This is especially relevant in the post-Brexit referendum context where national identity is highly correlated with Brexit attitudes. Using panel data, we demonstrate that there is a notable degree of fluidity between identifying as British or English. This is higher than the fluidity between other national identities in the UK as well as more fluid than moving between any partisan or EU referendum identities. Remainers are more fluid than Leavers in their Englishness, whereas they are similar in the fluidity of their Britishness.

Analysing British Asian national sporting affiliations post-London 2012

London’s selection as hosts for the 2012 Olympic Games was a significant moment for Britain. It was a chance to reinforce, through sport, a collective and inclusive British national identity. Most international sporting contests draw on English rather than British loyalties and identity constructions. This might have been especially important for members of the large British Asian diaspora, many of whom feel excluded from ethnically exclusive and narrowly White notions of ‘Englishness’. This paper is framed within a post-London 2012 period and examines the role of sport in constructing and negotiating British Asian national identities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with young British Asians in two English cities. For those who rejected an English national identity through sport, the Games presented an opportunity to connect with a more inclusive British version of sporting allegiance.

British Nationals’ Preferences Over Who Gets to Be a Citizen According to a Choice-Based Conjoint Experiment

Abstract This article contributes new evidence about the types of immigrants that British nationals would accept as fellow citizens. I analyse the preferences of a large, nationally representative UK sample employing a choice-based conjoint-analysis experiment. Respondents were presented with paired vignettes of applicant types characterized by a combination of attributes chosen randomly. The attributes of immigrants with the largest impact on the probability of granting citizenship were occupation and religion: respondents especially penalized applicants who were Muslim or with no occupation. Respondents granted citizenship at different rates on average (from 64 per cent to 80 per cent): rates were lower among respondents who had voted to leave the EU, were older, less educated, and earned less. The types of immigrant who were most likely to be granted citizenship did not, however, vary by respondents’ income, education, or age, and varied little between Brexit Leave and Remain voters. My findings about nationals’ citizen preferences reflect the inclusive–exclusive nature of British citizenship and national identity, whereby inclusion is conditional on productivity and on the endorsement of liberal values.

Foundation stone of empire: The role of Portland stone in ‘heritage’, commemoration, and identity

AbstractIn 2013, Portland Stone, a creamy white limestone from the Isle of Portland in Dorset, was named the world’s first “Global Heritage Stone Resource” (GSHR) by the Heritage Stone Task Group, a sub‐commission of the International Union of Geological Sciences. The criteria for GSHR designation are ambiguous, with the Task Group championing Portland Stone’s “cultural value” and “heritage,” neither of which are critically interrogated. In this paper we undertake a detailed critical discourse analysis of Hansard entries mentioning Portland Stone between 1803 and 2020. We reveal that the use of Portland Stone is intertwined with colonial oppression, class subjugation, empire politics, structural racism, and a mythologised, England‐centric vision of British national identity. In celebrating the use of Portland Stone as part of Britain’s “heritage”, we are condoning a narrative of Britishness that is exclusionary and whitewashed, and that supports an elite rewriting of national and international history. Drawing on critical heritage literature, we argue that the Heritage Stone Task Group must urgently reconsider their uncritical appraisal of “heritage” and “culture” and consult with social science colleagues to ensure that all voices are heard. Our study shows that through the history and nature of their usage, the rocks beneath our feet, our natural foundation, can become imbued with notions of regional and national identity, belonging and exclusion, memory and loss – they can become a powerful manifestation of symbolic and unequal power structures. While British society’s attention is turned to the imprint of colonialism, empire, and race on our geographies, we urge further consideration of the built environment: the very stones that construct our towns and cities, the plinths on which statues are erected, tell stories of oppression and domination that are an important part of British history, culture, and heritage.

Constructing National Identity in the British Press: The Britain vs. Europe Dichotomy

Britain’s decision to leave the European Union (EU) not only marks a crucial point in its history and politics, it also evidences growing concern over issues such as British self-determination and national identity. It is therefore revealing to trace the contrasting contemporary media representations of Britain and Europe within the context of the EU membership referendum of 2016 and migration within the EU. Immigration, in its broadest sense, provides a basis for ideological debates about the nature of identity and self-representation. This corpus-based study analyses the discursive techniques employed by the national press in its representation of both Britain and Europe during the UK’s withdrawal from the EU in 2016–2018. The data represents a specialised corpus containing 500 editorials, opinion pieces and news reports from five British newspapers: The Guardian (The Observer) and The Mirror represent left-wing ideology, while The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail and The Sun represent right-wing ideology. In terms of methodology, the study applies a mixed-method approach that combines corpus-based analysis with a further examination of wider contexts and discourses. As a first step, the analysis focuses on the left-hand collocates of the words Britain versus Europe, as well as on the right-hand collocates of the adjectives British versus European and EU. As a further step, a concordance analysis of the most salient and distinctive collocates is used to identify the discourses constructed around these terms; the differences between the left- and right-wing newspapers are then analysed, and finally, the findings are situated in a broader socio-political context. The study uses this combination of methods to reveal how the British press creates the Britain versus Europe dichotomy.

Perceptions, experiences and accommodations of Britishness; an exploration of national identity amongst young British Sikhs and Hindus in London

ABSTRACT This paper is centred on exploring how young people from Sikh and Hindu backgrounds, who are British born and living in the London area understand Britishness. By utilising transcripted interviews from eighty respondents, this research uncovers and presents the core perceptions and understandings that these young people have about British national identity and the ways in which it is accommodated (or not) alongside other important sources of belonging in their lives. This paper presents the diverse ways in which these young people understand Britishness. In particular, ‘thick' and ‘thin’ conceptualisations of Britishness and the role of family structures in shaping belonging are examined. It is suggested that any discussion of how ethnic minorities relate to national identity requires a better understanding of the diverse ways in which this form of identity is understood and accommodated. This, in turn, will encourage a more inclusive and productive debate on the role of national identity in multi-cultural Britain. This is particularly salient in a post-Brexit Britain where the themes of nationality and belonging have been brought into the socio-political fore once more, and newer immigrants are facing the challenges of feeling included and becoming British.

‘St Helena, an island between’: Multiple migrations, small island resilience, and survival

St Helena is a non-sovereign British Overseas Territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. When full British citizenship was removed in 1981, migration destinations were reduced to Ascension Island and the Falkland Islands. The islanders of St Helena are not only transnational; they are trans-islander. With the return of citizenship in 2002, many St Helenians migrated to the UK, depleting the population on the island, creating doubts regarding the island’s future. Whilst the islanders defended their British national identity, they simultaneously questioned it. This paper demonstrates how although St Helena officially economically relies on the British Government, the islanders themselves support their island through economic remittances. This paper offers an insight into how communities survive during times when their national identity is ruptured. The St Helenian community remains intact; the islanders have ensured this. A suit of Bourdieu’s concepts have been utilised for a theoretically driven understanding of islandness. Islander identity is formed as outward-looking desiring opportunity, freedom of movement and capital, and inward-looking with a strong sense of feeling and attachment to the island. Continuity and survival for this small island community is composed of migration, shift, and rupture.

The contradictions of islandness: The small island of St Helena and the emotions of transnationalism

This paper investigates the emotions of transnationalism, when coming from the small, remote British Overseas Territory of St Helena. This paper captures how St Helenian islanders migrate for new opportunities and to escape island monotony. Even though dispersed, the St Helenian islanders retain a strong sense of attachment and belonging to their island, often establishing emotional and material ties in two hemispheres. This paper thus captures the emotions of feeling torn and the contradictory emotions of islandness. This research draws from 68 in-depth interviews with St Helenian islanders between 2006 and 2008, following the return of British citizenship in 2002, but before the island had a functioning airport in 2017. This research captured the emotions of transnationalism when travel was expensive, complex and arduous, due to a fickle British national identity as well as the island's dependence on one single ship. At the point of publishing this research however, the UK was negotiating deals for Brexit and international air travel was limited due to the global Covid-19 pandemic. Mobility for this transnational small island community, thus remains uncertain and complicated, due to their post-colonial national identity and geographical isolation.

Brexit and the Myth of British National Identity

In this paper we analyse Brexit in relation to changes in British national identity since World War II. We begin by analysing how the concept of “tradition” relates to “nation”, and then examine current discourses surrounding Brexit and national identity. We trace the ways in which British national identity has been renegotiated since World War II through contests over nationality, citizenship, cultural diversity, and Europe. Finally, we ask why British political actors have struggled to negotiate the dilemmas of post-Imperial British identity, and what lessons can be learned. We look at changing coalitions within British political parties, which we connect to philosophical tensions in their underlying intellectual traditions, and to changes brought about by globalisation. We conclude that Brexit and the broader crisis of liberal democracy of which it is a part have deep historical and philosophical roots, and that attempts to unite our policy through a single national identity will be unsuccessful.