Summary/Notes for English: Study of the Cultural Area (Part UK)
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Course
Engels: Studie van het cultuurgebied
Institution
Universiteit Antwerpen (UA)
Everything from the UK part of the course 'English: Study of the Cultural Area': Powerpoints, own notes, summary articles, sample exam questions - UAntwerpen - Line Magnus - Semester 1 - Master in translation
2021–2022 Master Vertalen L. Magnus
English: Area Studies – UK part
Anything before 1800: you need to know the century
1800–1900: you need to be able to situate things in the correct decade
From 1900: you need to know specific years
ENG = England | W = Wales | SC = Scotland | GB = Great Britain | IR = Ireland | N-IR = Northern Ireland | gvt(s). =
government(s) | c. = century/centuries
British identity & Brexit
British (or English?) nationalism: What does Brexit tell us about the state of nationalism in the
UK?
Reading: ‘Tea, Biscuits, and Empire: The Long Con of Britishness’
- Border war between Britain and “Britain!”: Real Britain is in deep trouble Fantasy Britain
is having a boomtime
o Every nation-state is 90% fictional: project how they want others to see them UK
does this through its media: casts a vision of itself that does not hold true to reality,
both about its present and history
- American Anglophilia: UK has a unique hold on American imagination Big entertainment
industry
o “[Britain] would be far less adorable if we still owned you”
- Young Britons are demanding a reckoning with a history of colonial conquest, slave-
trading, industrial savagery, and utter refusal to examine its own legacy
o Britain wrote and rewrote itself as the protagonist of its own legends, making its
barbarism bearable and its cultural dominance natural
o Real history of UK is problematic: be conscious of this; UK is constructed from the
outside
- A nation in decline on the international stage
o Present-day UK is struggling; under austerity: gvt. is trying to save money on social
programmes & health care Mostly impacts poorer sides of society
NHS: one of the only things that most Britons agree on Austerity (& covid)
negatively impact NHS
Terminology
British Isles British Islands + Ireland
British Islands UK + Channel Islands + Isle of
Man
United Kingdom Great Britain + Northern Ireland
(Island of) Great Scotland + Wales + England
Britain
Ireland (Island) Ireland (State; Republic of
Ireland = country) + Northern
Ireland
Channel Islands Guernsey + Jersey + Sark +
(Islands in the North Alderney
Sea)
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Great Britain: SC + W + ENG but they consider themselves separate nations.
So what is Britishness if they consider themselves separate nations?
British national identity
- Definition identity
o Your place within a culture
o How you see yourself or how others see you
- Definition nationality
o Allegiance & cultural affiliation (~ own perception/feeling), but: UK consists of
different countries/nations who have their own cultures and different local identities
They feel culturally affiliated with only part of the UK and not with Britain as a
whole
- Does British national identity even exist?
o GB has no national identity because it’s too diverse: there’s only Englishness,
Welshness, Irishness, Scottishness see ‘A ‘divided’ Britain?’
A ‘divided’ Britain?
- GB = a constructed nation; not natural
SC, W & (N-)IR:
- ENG colonised and annexed the others
- Different histories
- Separate ‘national’ identities
o Slow merging of identities
- An ‘invented’ nation? Yes! Britain is a political union. The formation of this nation did not
occur
- naturally. The different nations did not want to belong together (no sense of belonging).
- People have got to want to identify & have a reason to
o Forced together geographically by having to form a nation: no affiliation/identification
with ‘Britishness’. British identity is a political identity.
°1066: establishment of ENG as a nation after the Battle of Hastings
1283 (1536): annexation of W (unofficially after Edwardian Conquest of W, officially after
the Act of Union)
1707: SC officially united with ENG & W (Acts of Union approved by both sides)
1600s: colonisation of IR by ENG (IR was really seen as a colony)
1801: annexation of IR (protest)
1921: secession of IR Creation of the Irish Free State (separate country) & N-IR (part
of the UK)
Devolution
Definition: process in which power is shifted from the national parliament in Westminster
towards the subnational parliaments
1999: °Scottish Parliament
1999: °National Assembly for W
2000: °N-IR Assembly (but intermittently suspended because weapons were found with members of the
IRA or because of internal political problems)
Clear example that the UK isn’t one nation
Who feels British?
- Choose ‘British’ first: ENG: 52% W: 30% SC: 19%
- The Welsh: 16% (↗) the Scottish: 8% (↗) the Northern Irish: 39% (↘)
- The Guardian: Ethnic minorities in UK feel most British
Study: “Ethnic minorities in UK feel most British”
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Immigration and the fear of a lack of integration from immigrants was one of the major
driving forces for Brexit. Many people wanted to have a Brexit to gain more control over
immigration because they feared that migrants would destroy the British identity. This study
proves that cultural identity as a concept is more important to people with migrant
backgrounds and their descendants compared to people who are white.
Proposed British National Day
The UK does not have a national day because it has no founding date; the country was
created over a longer period of time. People’s priorities in choosing a date: issues of civil
liberties, military might and political significance.
Historical periods of Britain
- Rural
- Industrial: first European country to industrialise; Industrial Revolution
- Imperial: English economy driven by colonial conquest & exploitation of large parts of the
world
- Suburban (1950s): people leave towns for suburbs
- Tourist
- Multi-cultural
Historical identities of Britain
- An island people unconquered for centuries
o Last time they were conquered was in 1066
o Geographically separate from Europe: the British do not really identify with the
mainland
- A largely rural community, but the first industrial nation Contrasting identity: idyllic
industrial
- They identified as an imperial leader
- Dichotomy: a land divided between north and south, or between London and the rest of
the country
o North (industrialised; poorer) & south (rural) of ENG: culturally different
o Gvt. in London out of touch with the rest of the country + different culture, e.g. voting
for or against Brexit (London ‘no’ the rest ‘yes’)
- Class-based society (now more fragmented but still present)
British identity… disintegrating?
British identity until +/- 50 years ago:
- Close relationship with Parliament: UK was one of the first nations to have a Parliament
and become a republic Very proud of their Parliament; good relationship with politicians
- British imperialism: the idea of a superior Britain, a world power, strong armed forces
- Protestantism & Church of ENG (independent)
- Manufacturing: the world’s oldest industrial nation
- Relatively homogenous population (mostly white ethnicity)
Last 50 years: deconstruction of these building blocks above
- Increase in partisanship (= strong identification with one political party)
o Parties drift further apart on political spectrum Two-party system: Labour &
Conservative Party
o Parties find it harder to compromise + animosity This also divided the population
Decreased trust in politicians/politics
- Decline of Empire: Colonies gained independence Shift in perception: from a paternalist,
benevolent attitude to attitude of greed, exploitation
o Remnants of Empire: GB still feels important but it is just a small European country
Misplaced feeling of megalomania/grandeur/arrogance
- Decline of religion
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- Declining importance of industry: shift towards service & tech industry
- Multiculturalism & diversity: migration from previous colonies See ‘Multiculturalism in the UK’
Plurality of British identities
- Decreasing importance of nationality in identifying identity
- Increasing importance of local (Scottish, Welsh, Londoner…) & transnational (European)
identities
- Intersectionality of identity: nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, age,
occupation…
No unified identity: people have multiple
identities
Identity no longer seen as a construction
based on nationality but as an intersection
of many identifying factors
British presence abroad
- Since 1964: more people left Britain than they
have entered; more emigration than
immigration
- British presence: remains of imperialism
o E.g. Hong Kong was a British crown colony until 1997
- British presence: overseas territories (island nations across the globe)
Brexit: recap & update
- Revealed a lot about British identity: a lot of people in UK do not identify as European
British nationalism on the rise; want independence;
xenophobia & anti-immigration rhetoric
How Britain voted in the referendum
- Result: narrow win for ‘Leave’
o 51.9% Leave 48.1% Remain Turnout: 72.2%
- ENG & W overwhelmingly voted to leave SC, N-IR &
London voted to remain
o Friction: SC thinks of seceding from the UK and
joining the EU as independent nation
o This is an effect of London’s multiculturalism: more
open to transnational identities; less opposed to
immigration
Britain and the EU
- 1973: member of the EEC (European Economic Community)
- 1992: UK became part of the EU with the Maastricht Treaty – Founding of the European
Union
- 2009: Lisbon Treaty
o Contained article 50: “Members have the right to quit the EU”
- Fall 2014: UK pledged £ 1.7 bn extra contribution to EU People unsatisfied: Money
should have been spent on improving things in the UK. But people did not realise that the
benefits outweigh the monetary contribution.
- June 2016: Brexit referendum under David Cameron
o Britons feel negatively against the EU: a lot of people felt that a lot of money went to
the EU
o Cameron resigned afterwards
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