"State of Britain"

2017

English 3809 (3-0-3 credits, Group 3C) is a study "in fiction, poetry, and drama published since 1950 in one or more of the following countries: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland)." In this course, we will explore the exciting genesis of new fictions and art forms that emerged in Britain after World War II. Specifically, we will look at how the punk explosion of 1976 serves as a galvanizing force that transforms not only contemporary British life but also Western society at large. Students will learn about the variety of economic, political, and social crises of our contemporary times (e.g., the political violence in Northern Ireland, the rise of Thatcherism, the eruption of race riots, the fears of nuclear warfare and the advent of global terrorism) as well as new developments in literary and artistic styles (e.g., radical experiments in postmodern and feminist writing, film, and thought; new developments in music after punk; startling criticism of race and "Britishness" through postcolonial theory). 11ll1l Not only will we study British writers, but we will also consider how other British artists use mediums such as drama, film, video, and music to explore and evaluate the vast socio-political and economic changes to their environment. Writers, filmmakers, and artists covered in the course may include j. G.

Porównania, 2021

Brexit, as seen from the present perspective, is seemingly a success story. Taking into account a myriad of voices expressed in the public domain over the past few years, it is legitimate to make a cautious claim that some of the expectations people shared before/during the referendum have been inflated and deflated in the post-plebiscite reality. In 2016, across the majority that voted for the divorce, a growing consensus on the soundness and solidity of pro-Leave arguments about Britain being in crisis was seen. The proponents of change had endorsed the policy of restoring a sense of national dignity. That mode of reasoning, though still present within current “British” mindsets, has been confronted with the “unplanned” turbulence of national (re) adjustment. The whole process of bidding farewell to the European Union has led to sentiments of uncertainty/anxiety/regret, rather than to the anticipated sense of satisfaction/relief. Therefore, it seems both vital and interesting to j...

1 Overlapping generations of writers with diverse ambitions, backgrounds, and commitments have ensured that British fi ction since the Second World War evades neat portraits of affi liation or progression, in mode as well as in matter. Classifi cations become hard to justify, because of the multiple ways in which late twentieth-and twenty-fi rst-century writers have imaginatively responded to the era's changing social realities, and because '[c] reativity itself', as British-Guyanese writer Fred D'Aguiar observes, 'cannot be contained for long in any fashion or vice-hold which the process of naming and compartmentalizing seeks to promote'. 1 Moreover, the very construction of this fi eld faces one obvious logistical consideration: the ever-expanding end-dates for 'post-1945' as a periodising rubric make comprehensive accounts of so many decades of cultural transformation seem increasingly unviable. Still, undaunted, this Companion provides its own atlas of an era whose unwieldy temporality and perpetually moving horizon do nothing to discredit its usefulness in framing some of the most signifi cant developments in British fi ction.

Armenian Folia Anglistika

National identity can be traced in almost all the spheres of human habitat – cultural, institutional, political, literary, pshychological, daily routine and many others, that is both in the verbal and non verbal activities of all and each person, respectively. In this research we look upon the British identity manifestations in the post-modern multifaceted literary frame based on the English short story contexts. Given the popular approach of the marked British conventionalism, concepts and cultural artefacts, as it were, we elucidate the stories of three contemporary women writers — A.S. Byatt; J.Gardam and D.Moggach, as a field to reveal literary reproductions of identity paradigm and its social-cultural component in view of the city of London and certain niches of its subcultures. The analysis produces challenging ideas when considering social and spatial distinctions of London’s image according to the writers’ subjective attitudes, as well as the moral of the past and present, ...

Forthcoming chapter in _The Cambridge Companion to Post-1945 British Fiction_.

Culture Wars in British Literature: Multiculturalism and National Identity , 2012

This document provides short excerpts from the Culture Wars in British Literature book. The past century's culture wars that Britain has been consumed by have resulted in revised notions of Britishness and British literature. Yet literary anthologies remain anchored to an archaic Anglo-English interpretation of British literature. This generalist cultural study is a fascinating glimpse into Britain's changing identity as reflected in 20th and 21st century British literature. Conflicts have played out over specific national vs. British identity (some residents prefer to describe themselves as being from Scotland, England, Wales, or Northern Ireland instead of Britain), in debates over immigration, race, ethnicity, class, and gender, and in arguments over British literature. These debates are strikingly detailed in such chapters as: "The Difficulty Defining 'Black British'," "British Jewish Writers" and "Xenophobia and the Booker Prize." Connections are also drawn between civil rights movements in the U.S. and UK. Reviews: "Tracy Prince's book brings an impressive set of voices into dialogue on the complexity of community-building and national identity--analyzing important aspects of British culture which are not fully represented in anthologies or literary histories." R. Victoria Arana, Professor of English, Howard University "Writing with great lucidity and welcome originality, Tracy J. Prince explores how an increasingly multicultural Britain defines itself, and is defined, through literature and a literary establishment still dominated by an Anglo-English elite." Tamar Heller, Associate Professor of English & Comparative Literature, University of Cincinnati "It is precisely in its analysis of this 'Anglo centeredness' and its sensitive treatment of the many other voices that comprise modern British writing that this books strength lies. We have no hesitation in recommending 'Culture Wars in British Literature' to anyone with an interest in the complexities of modern British culture and in particular the difficulty of establishing a separate and distinct Anglo-Welsh identity within the mainstream." Ceri Shaw, AmeriCymru's "Welsh Magazine" T]his book is near flawless…an incredible source of information. Using literature as a starting point, Prince delves into [Britain’s] history with many forms of discrimination. She does an exceptional job detailing each of these histories and explaining how they affect Britain today. Whether you are actively studying British literature or are just interested in how another country deals with (and continues to justify) racism, classism, sexism, and anti-Semitism, you will find lots of useful, surprising, and relevant information in 'Culture Wars in British Literature.' -"San Francisco Book Review" Contents: Foreword by Thomas C. Caramagno Introduction: Mind the Gap 1. The Imploded Empire: Literary Reactions to Britain's Changed Empire 2. The Difficulty Defining British Literature 3. The Difficulty Defining "Black British" 4. Two Nations: Class Issues in Contemporary British Literature 5. British Jewish Writers 6. Xenophobia and the Booker Prize 7. Britain's "New" Multicultural Identity Appendix I: Man Booker Prize Winners Appendix II: International Man Booker Prize Winners Appendix III: Orange Prize Winners

2010

Études britanniques contemporaines

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The European Studies Journal , 1997

The decline of the "English" novel is a subject with which the British have been obsessed since the nineteenth century. The last few years have been no exception as such acknowledged authors as Kingsley Amis proclaimed that there was a complete dearth of good young writers today. Many of those concerned with the dwindling ranks of "English" authors eventually reveal that their definition of "English" is one which remains exclusively Anglo. In this climate, some wonder what it means to be an "English" writer when non-native writers take up residency in England, write in English, sometimes become naturalized, are sometimes heralded as the next new crop of "British" writers, yet are not included as British in basic social structures and appear infrequently on sanctioned reading lists for the National Curriculum. The last few decades have produced another take on the discussion as a large portion of the prestigious Booker Prize list is routinely composed of postcolonial authors who often force the British to look into the glass darkly and see the results of imperialism both at home and abroad. For many contemporary writers, the question of national identity in light of the collapse of the British Empire is a main subject of concern. Publisher: Deddington, Oxfordshire, UK Editor: Philip Allan.

This paper reviews the concept and the corpus of English literature and its development in the context of culture and the academy from the 18 th Century onwards. I argue that the category of literature is a 'liquid' notion best understood as a form of 'social action' (after Eagleton) relevant to wider social, cultural, and political contexts that produce and 'consume' it. In the academy, through extending the notion of the institution to a wider social and political context, literature could be best understood as an 'institutional reality' reflecting perceived relations of power. Deeming literature as an ideological tribute is crucially important to arguing against the monolithic and essentialist (Anglo-American literary tradition) as embodying a universal value that still prevail in post-colonial institutions. This argument helps conceptualise and interrogate the cultural constructs embodied in English literature, in general, and the English canonical texts, in particular; it also makes it possible to refute the claim that literature transcends its local boundaries and nationalist sentiments to articulate the universal concerns and values of all people. In my approach to these claims and assumptions, I resort to a critical narrative review to the 'story' of the English literature in cultural, political, social, geographical and institutional contexts.. In academy, particularly in post-colonial settings, I conclude that the adopted literary tradition reflects a matrix of relations of power and institutional affiliations. Such conceptualisation of literature helps to challenge the claim that English literature largely embodies a humanistic enterprise of universal values and uniform human experience. Literature has been subordinate to the fluidity of cultural tenets, which in themselves have undergone several historic, paradigmatic, and institutional transfigurations and perversions. Both the notions of culture and literature are subject to similar social and historical trajectories. 'Institutionalising' literature has epitomised the concept and determined its value, and how it mirrors wider cultural relations of power. Drawing on these observations, I argue that there always exists interplay between the text and the wider context responsible for producing and disseminating literature, which intersects with institutionally established ideologies and practices. I understand the notion of context to refer to the 'system' or the 'institutional cultural capital ' (Bourdieu, 1998) that is responsible for normalising and regulating textual knowledges, and which projects literature as an 'institutional reality '. As Popatia (1998) argues, the interaction between text and context is often governed by an ideological and hegemonic discourse that seeks to prove itself as the most legitimate.