The Gent-rification of English masculinities: class,race and nation in contemporary consumption

The figure of the English gentleman is regaining traction in British society. This retrograde celebration of a type of masculinity articulating various intersections in class, racial and national identity provides not just a reliable identity-complex for contemporary British males but also imaginative solutions to the current cultural predicaments – notably, how to be English/British in the era of globalisation. This article will unpack this reformation of the gentleman and its paradoxical appearance and position at present through two consumer objects: clothing and cars. By first conceptually outlining the national, class and racialised background of the ‘gentleman’ for the British cultural imagination, the article will proceed to analyse Jack Wills' clothing aesthetic and the recent Jaguar F-Type coupe, ‘Good to be Bad’, adverts. The article draws upon Lévi-Strauss and Jameson to conceptualise this paradoxical, mythical resurgence of gentry/gentlemanliness. By focusing on how two artefacts utilise an Americanised mythical narrative of Britishness, I claim the contemporary landscape sees the oxymoronic return of an archaic character-type refigured in a manner appropriate for an increasingly plural, multi-cultural global landscape.     

England? Whose England? (Re)constructing English identities in Julian Barnes and W. G. Sebald

This article is an interdisciplinary look at notions of identity construction. Focusing on ‘Englishness’, it examines theories of identity formation, memory creation and nation-building alongside travel writing and notions of the picturesque. The focus of the debate throughout is on two novels of the 1990s: Julian Barnes’ dystopian England, England of 1998 and W. G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn of 1995 (English translation, 1998). Both novels play with traditional ideas of national identities and stereotypes by presenting their readers with the literal ‘construction’ of alternative versions of England and the English.     

《奥兰多》中的东方和东方主义

国内学界对《奥兰多》中的东方再现缺少关注。伍尔夫在有关东方旅行的游记及与同性恋人维塔·萨克维尔-韦斯特的通信中,表现出明显的东方主义心态。她把这种心态带入对《奥兰多》东方场景的虚构,通过表现奥兰多对土耳其景物和土耳其吉卜赛人的偏见及由此生发的归家欲望,反衬奥兰多作为盎格鲁-撒克逊白人的种族和民族身份,将土耳其降格为文化他者。这种处理方式在一定程度上映射了20世纪20年代英国与土耳其的政治角力,揭示出《奥兰多》作为一部现代主义文学作品的现实指涉和地缘政治内涵,也体现了伍尔夫的文学创作与帝国政治的紧密关联。     

Dialects of nostalgia: Downton Abbey and English identity

This article explores both Englishness and nostalgia in the period drama, Downton Abbey (Julian Fellowes, ITV, 2010–). The story of the Earl of Grantham and his family engage the viewer's emotions by recreating a by-gone era, which could actually stir an acute reflexive nostalgia. Given its popularity, we will explore the ideological use of nostalgia for this contemporary performance of Englishness. Through a close narrative analysis, we will further analyse the meanings of both English estates and social class in the series. Thus, we will see how instances of collective nostalgia may reveal underlying cultural values.     

Homicide and ‘Englishness’: Criminal Justice and National Identity in Victorian England

One venue for the formation of national identity that has received comparatively little attention in recent years, is that of the courtroom. In particular, the treatment of serious crimes in Victorian England involved a good deal of reference to notions of Englishness. In the course of their routine work, Victorian criminal courts promulgated particular and generally coherent views as to how ‘an Englishman’, as opposed to a foreigner, was expected to behave. This article examines how the judicial treatment of three types of nineteenth‐century violence – the duel, knife‐fighting and the killing of an adulterous spouse or his or her lover – contributed to reshaping the contours of male English national identity.     

Beyond Islamophobia? The role of Englishness and English national identity within English Defence League discourse and politics

ABSTRACT

Unsurprisingly, most scholarship on the English Defence League (EDL) focuses on the Islamophobic nature of the group's politics. This has found that, whilst the group presents a more moderate, public-facing image, the EDL's backstage discourse is a far less nuanced brand of Islamophobia and cultural racism (Allen, C. (2011). Opposing Islamification or promoting Islamophobia? Understanding the English Defence League. Patterns of Prejudice, 45(4), 279–294; Kassimeris, G., & Jackson, L. (2015). The ideology and discourse of the English Defence League: ‘Not racist, not violent, just no longer silent’. British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 17, 171–188). A more fundamental area of EDL ideology has been left unexamined, however: what notion of ‘England’ is the EDL trying to ‘defend’? Using content analysis of EDL online discourse, this article examines how the EDL articulates, represents, and uses English national identity within its discourse and politics.     

爱德华·汤普森的伦理激进主义及其遗产

汤普森思想的本质是一种伦理激进主义,他不仅受到马克思主义的影响,也受到英国本土许多社会主义和非社会主义思想传统的影响。尽管其理论存在某些模糊性,汤普森对政治生活的积极参与,及其对民主辩论的倡导都是弥足珍贵的财富,而其思想遗产的消散既是巨大的理论损失,也是巨大的政治损失。