EnglishnessTwentieth-Century Popular Culture and the Forming of English Identity

Celebrating British multiculturalism, lamenting England/Britain's past

“…Indeed, when previous work has identified a rebirth of English patriotism (Garland 2004;Kenny 2014;Poulton 2003), then it is important that critical attention is awarded to examining the ways in which the English Nations andNationalism 22 (4), 2016, 786-802. DOI: 10.1111/nana.12164 Subsequently, whereas understandings of 'England' were once experienced through 'the prism of British identity and imperial bonds' (Jackson 2015: 11) and as part of an imperial process that racialised national identity along racial hierarchies of national belonging (Cesarini 1996), contemporary understandings of England are marked by anxieties enveloped in the European continent (Euroscepticism), England's post-imperial role and, more recently, its position within a devolved British state (Aughey 2007;Colley 2005Colley , 2014Colls 2002;Featherstone 2009;Gibbons 2015;Gilroy 2005;Leddy-Owen 2014a, 2014bMaguire 1993;Malcolm 2014;Skey 2012;Wellings 2010). This is echoed by Kingsnorth, who argues that:…”

“…In the context of the Diamond Jubileea royal event marked by tradition and historyand the London Olympic Gamesa global sporting event, awarded to London based upon its promoted multiculturalismexaminations of the relationship between 'past' and 'present' narratives in media discourses can provide a valuable insight into contemporary representations of Britain (Edy 1999;Falcous and Silk 2010;Silk 2014;Wardle and West 2004). In the case of England, this can take on particular relevance, especially when analyses of English nationalism/national identity have been marked by examples of dislocation, anxiety, (post-imperial) decline and a decrease in 'British' identifications (Abell et al 2007;Aughey 2007;Cesarini 1996;Colley 2014;Featherstone 2009;Gibbons 2015;Gilroy 1987Gilroy , 2004Gilroy , 2005Kenny 2014;Kumar 2003;Leddy-Owen 2014a, 2014bMaguire and Poulton 1999;Maguire et al 1999;Reviron-Piégay 2009;Skey 2012;Wellings 2010). Therefore, with regard to examining how representations of Britain's multicultural 'present' were related to, framed by and, worked alongside, established and stable versions of an English/British 'past' Naidoo 2004, 2005), this article explored English newspaper coverage of the 2012 Diamond Jubilee and London Olympic Games.…”

Book Review: Andy Bennett and Jon Stratton, eds. Britpop and the English Music Tradition. Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series. Farnham: Ashgate, 2010. 225 pp. ISBN 978-0-754- 66805-3 (hbk). £55.00

“…The ever-expanding study of Englishness since Britpop's heyday is still producing valuable works concerning the fragile idea of English identity and its relation to popular culture (Featherstone 2009). Also the idea of Britishness and its heritage, seen often as an embarrassing reminder of British Empire and its arrogance, is valued critically in Chris Rojek's Brit Myth (2007).…”

For the People's Good: Hans Schleger (1898–1976), Poster Design and British National Identity, 1935–60

“…Such sites proved equally attractive, during the latter half of the 1930s, to contemporary British artists such as Paul Nash, John Piper, Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious. 65 Intriguingly, Schleger has chosen to present these bucolic sites in a formal manner reminiscent of the photomontages produced by Aleksander Rodchenko, featuring huge collective farms in the Ukraine, the arduous building of the White Sea Canal and record steel production in the Urals, which were published in the agitprop magazine USSR under Construction between 1933 and 1936. 66 Both combine strong background colour -in Schleger's Hillside -Ivinghoe Beacon, Oxted a suitably verdant green -with alluring black and white photography and simple, direct text.…”