Michael Kenny
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780197266465
- eISBN:
- 9780191879609
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266465.003.0013
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
This chapter proposes that much current talk of ‘English nationalism’ and its role in the vote for Brexit in 2016 is either empirically misinformed or conceptually misleading. Instead it proposes a ...
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This chapter proposes that much current talk of ‘English nationalism’ and its role in the vote for Brexit in 2016 is either empirically misinformed or conceptually misleading. Instead it proposes a historically informed perspective via an engagement with three different characterisations of the genesis of Englishness: the contention that the English are doomed to be ‘little Englanders’ until they cast off the shackles associated with the British state; the notion that it is empire above all that has moulded the character of English nationhood; and, finally, evolutionist accounts which trade upon familiar forms of national exceptionalism. Drawing selective insights from these accounts, while also questioning aspects of each, the author concludes that the ingrained habit of conflating Englishness with Enoch Powell’s anti-immigrant and anti-EU nationalism has stunted our understanding of this lineage of national sentiment and its politically contingent character.Less
This chapter proposes that much current talk of ‘English nationalism’ and its role in the vote for Brexit in 2016 is either empirically misinformed or conceptually misleading. Instead it proposes a historically informed perspective via an engagement with three different characterisations of the genesis of Englishness: the contention that the English are doomed to be ‘little Englanders’ until they cast off the shackles associated with the British state; the notion that it is empire above all that has moulded the character of English nationhood; and, finally, evolutionist accounts which trade upon familiar forms of national exceptionalism. Drawing selective insights from these accounts, while also questioning aspects of each, the author concludes that the ingrained habit of conflating Englishness with Enoch Powell’s anti-immigrant and anti-EU nationalism has stunted our understanding of this lineage of national sentiment and its politically contingent character.
Anthony Heath and Shawna Smith
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263310
- eISBN:
- 9780191734144
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263310.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter shows that there is an inevitable asymmetry in the very nature and character of Scottish and English nationalism. In particular, it tries to examine the nature of unionism and ...
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This chapter shows that there is an inevitable asymmetry in the very nature and character of Scottish and English nationalism. In particular, it tries to examine the nature of unionism and nationalism in Scotland and England and the prospects for the union. Minority nationalism is the nationalism of politically subordinate groups that seek statehood. The chapter first explores three different aspects of nationalism, namely emotional attachments to Britain, perceptions of conflicts of interest between England and Scotland and constitutional preferences. It gets very different impressions of relations between England and Scotland depending on whether constitutional preferences, affective attachments or perceptions of national interest are considered. The data indicate that, whereas amongst older respondents higher education was linked with unionism, amongst the young it was accompanied by disengagement. The character and behaviour of unionists, nationalists, potential nationalists and disengaged post-nationalists, and the implications for relations between the two countries are elaborated. It is suspected that parties like the Referendum Party in 2001 and currently the UK Independence Party are the most likely to harness the potential for English nationalism and to direct it against Europe rather than against Scotland.Less
This chapter shows that there is an inevitable asymmetry in the very nature and character of Scottish and English nationalism. In particular, it tries to examine the nature of unionism and nationalism in Scotland and England and the prospects for the union. Minority nationalism is the nationalism of politically subordinate groups that seek statehood. The chapter first explores three different aspects of nationalism, namely emotional attachments to Britain, perceptions of conflicts of interest between England and Scotland and constitutional preferences. It gets very different impressions of relations between England and Scotland depending on whether constitutional preferences, affective attachments or perceptions of national interest are considered. The data indicate that, whereas amongst older respondents higher education was linked with unionism, amongst the young it was accompanied by disengagement. The character and behaviour of unionists, nationalists, potential nationalists and disengaged post-nationalists, and the implications for relations between the two countries are elaborated. It is suspected that parties like the Referendum Party in 2001 and currently the UK Independence Party are the most likely to harness the potential for English nationalism and to direct it against Europe rather than against Scotland.
Marc Baer
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198112501
- eISBN:
- 9780191670787
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198112501.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter discusses the role of theatre in helping shape and sustain English nationalism, and contains an analysis of how concerns about patriotism or the English identity influenced the disorder ...
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This chapter discusses the role of theatre in helping shape and sustain English nationalism, and contains an analysis of how concerns about patriotism or the English identity influenced the disorder in Covent Garden. One argument that is presented in this chapter is about the Old Price riots and how these reflected a collective or social memory of theatre in 1809.Less
This chapter discusses the role of theatre in helping shape and sustain English nationalism, and contains an analysis of how concerns about patriotism or the English identity influenced the disorder in Covent Garden. One argument that is presented in this chapter is about the Old Price riots and how these reflected a collective or social memory of theatre in 1809.
Arthur Aughey
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719068720
- eISBN:
- 9781781701300
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719068720.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
This chapter considers a legend of integration, a narrative that may be said to constitute the English answer to problems of stable governance. It comments on Krishnan Kumar's The Making of English ...
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This chapter considers a legend of integration, a narrative that may be said to constitute the English answer to problems of stable governance. It comments on Krishnan Kumar's The Making of English National Identity, in which he claimed that there are virtually no expressions of English nationalism and no native tradition of reflection on English national identity. The chapter suggests that the link between the history of a people and its political institutions was a key feature of English reflection on the modern state, and that the lack of an overtly defined nationalism did not and does not mean the absence of a profound sense of nationality or even a certain idea of England. It also discusses the English claim of exceptionalism.Less
This chapter considers a legend of integration, a narrative that may be said to constitute the English answer to problems of stable governance. It comments on Krishnan Kumar's The Making of English National Identity, in which he claimed that there are virtually no expressions of English nationalism and no native tradition of reflection on English national identity. The chapter suggests that the link between the history of a people and its political institutions was a key feature of English reflection on the modern state, and that the lack of an overtly defined nationalism did not and does not mean the absence of a profound sense of nationality or even a certain idea of England. It also discusses the English claim of exceptionalism.
Michael Kenny
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199608614
- eISBN:
- 9780191775208
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199608614.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
This volume supplies a comprehensive overview of evidence and arguments relating to the revival of Englishness, and explores its political ramifications and dimensions. It examines the difficulties ...
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This volume supplies a comprehensive overview of evidence and arguments relating to the revival of Englishness, and explores its political ramifications and dimensions. It examines the difficulties which the major political parties have encountered in dealing with ‘the English question’ against the backdrop of the diminishing hold of established ideas of British government and Britishness in the final years of the last century. And it explores a range of factors-including insecurities generated by economic change, Euroscepticism, and a growing sense of cultural anxiety-which created the conditions for a renewal of English nationhood. The book provides a powerful challenge to the two established orthodoxies in this area. These either maintain that the English are dispositionally unable to assert their own nationhood outside the framework of the British state, or point to the supposed resurgence of a resentful and reactive sense of English nationalism. This volume instead demonstrates that a renewed, resonant, and internally divided sense of English nationhood is apparent, and reaches across the lines of class, while also refracting some of the divides associated with them. It characterizes several distinct and competing visions of the English nation in this period, contrasting the appearance of populist and resentful forms of English nationalism with an embedded and deeply rooted sense of conservative Englishness and attempts to reconstruct a more liberal and civic idea of a multicultural England. The book gives particular emphasis to the cultural aspects of the renewal of Englishness and the limited and tentative manner in which politicians and policy-makers have, as yet, engaged with this trend.Less
This volume supplies a comprehensive overview of evidence and arguments relating to the revival of Englishness, and explores its political ramifications and dimensions. It examines the difficulties which the major political parties have encountered in dealing with ‘the English question’ against the backdrop of the diminishing hold of established ideas of British government and Britishness in the final years of the last century. And it explores a range of factors-including insecurities generated by economic change, Euroscepticism, and a growing sense of cultural anxiety-which created the conditions for a renewal of English nationhood. The book provides a powerful challenge to the two established orthodoxies in this area. These either maintain that the English are dispositionally unable to assert their own nationhood outside the framework of the British state, or point to the supposed resurgence of a resentful and reactive sense of English nationalism. This volume instead demonstrates that a renewed, resonant, and internally divided sense of English nationhood is apparent, and reaches across the lines of class, while also refracting some of the divides associated with them. It characterizes several distinct and competing visions of the English nation in this period, contrasting the appearance of populist and resentful forms of English nationalism with an embedded and deeply rooted sense of conservative Englishness and attempts to reconstruct a more liberal and civic idea of a multicultural England. The book gives particular emphasis to the cultural aspects of the renewal of Englishness and the limited and tentative manner in which politicians and policy-makers have, as yet, engaged with this trend.
Alison Morgan
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781784993122
- eISBN:
- 9781526138668
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781784993122.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Radicalism and nationalism would appear to be unlikely bedfellows, given that they tend to be placed on opposite ends of the political spectrum; yet this section demonstrates how many of the radical ...
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Radicalism and nationalism would appear to be unlikely bedfellows, given that they tend to be placed on opposite ends of the political spectrum; yet this section demonstrates how many of the radical poems and songs written after Peterloo are underpinned by a radical English nationalism with poets making clear distinction between the un-English characteristics of a tyrannical state and monarchy and the true English patriot fighting for lost freedoms. Although the ideology of nationalism emerged in the revolutionary fervour of the late eighteenth century, this section establishes the nature of English radical nationalism and how the championing of English national identity has resonances with the republicanism of the English Revolution and late seventeenth century, the heroes and martyrs of which, particularly John Hampden, Algernon Sidney and William Russell, were a regular presence in the radical press. Key to English national identity is the myth of the Norman yoke and the yearning for the restoration of lost rights, references to which permeate the eleven poems in this section.Less
Radicalism and nationalism would appear to be unlikely bedfellows, given that they tend to be placed on opposite ends of the political spectrum; yet this section demonstrates how many of the radical poems and songs written after Peterloo are underpinned by a radical English nationalism with poets making clear distinction between the un-English characteristics of a tyrannical state and monarchy and the true English patriot fighting for lost freedoms. Although the ideology of nationalism emerged in the revolutionary fervour of the late eighteenth century, this section establishes the nature of English radical nationalism and how the championing of English national identity has resonances with the republicanism of the English Revolution and late seventeenth century, the heroes and martyrs of which, particularly John Hampden, Algernon Sidney and William Russell, were a regular presence in the radical press. Key to English national identity is the myth of the Norman yoke and the yearning for the restoration of lost rights, references to which permeate the eleven poems in this section.
Michael Kenny
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199608614
- eISBN:
- 9780191775208
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199608614.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
This chapter supplies an overview of the contents of the book. It also identifies the influence and interpretative limitations of various clichés and canards about the English, and assesses the ...
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This chapter supplies an overview of the contents of the book. It also identifies the influence and interpretative limitations of various clichés and canards about the English, and assesses the prevalence in characterizations of this form of nationhood of: a particularistic strain of cultural conservatism; a progressive scepticism towards its merits and implications; and a residual loyalty to an Anglo-British form of nationality. It also points to the centrality of the question of whether Englishness is compatible with cultural diversity to debates about its political provenance, and observes the impact of a residual set of mythologies in anchoring different forms of English self-understanding. The chapter closes with a discussion of questions of conceptual terminology.Less
This chapter supplies an overview of the contents of the book. It also identifies the influence and interpretative limitations of various clichés and canards about the English, and assesses the prevalence in characterizations of this form of nationhood of: a particularistic strain of cultural conservatism; a progressive scepticism towards its merits and implications; and a residual loyalty to an Anglo-British form of nationality. It also points to the centrality of the question of whether Englishness is compatible with cultural diversity to debates about its political provenance, and observes the impact of a residual set of mythologies in anchoring different forms of English self-understanding. The chapter closes with a discussion of questions of conceptual terminology.
Michael Kenny
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199608614
- eISBN:
- 9780191775208
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199608614.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
Chapter 5 charts the responses of the two main political parties to the English question, which was posed with increasing frequency and feeling in the wake of Labour’s devolution legislation. The ...
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Chapter 5 charts the responses of the two main political parties to the English question, which was posed with increasing frequency and feeling in the wake of Labour’s devolution legislation. The Conservative leadership decided to distance itself from full-throated complaints about the position of England, and adopted the idea of ‘English votes on English matters’ at Westminster, despite differences over what this actually meant. And Labour responded to assertions about English grievance, in part, by developing its agenda for regional government. This perspective was increasingly challenged by a ‘localist’ current, which argued — though without achieving much popular resonance — for the devolution of powers within England. As the parties responded to this issue in a largely lukewarm and wary fashion, there also emerged a number of small campaigns, organizations, and parties that, in different ways, sought to catalyse an English nationalism. Until the recent success enjoyed by UKIP, these various endeavours failed to catch a wider mood, and the chapter finishes with a discussion of why this has been the case.Less
Chapter 5 charts the responses of the two main political parties to the English question, which was posed with increasing frequency and feeling in the wake of Labour’s devolution legislation. The Conservative leadership decided to distance itself from full-throated complaints about the position of England, and adopted the idea of ‘English votes on English matters’ at Westminster, despite differences over what this actually meant. And Labour responded to assertions about English grievance, in part, by developing its agenda for regional government. This perspective was increasingly challenged by a ‘localist’ current, which argued — though without achieving much popular resonance — for the devolution of powers within England. As the parties responded to this issue in a largely lukewarm and wary fashion, there also emerged a number of small campaigns, organizations, and parties that, in different ways, sought to catalyse an English nationalism. Until the recent success enjoyed by UKIP, these various endeavours failed to catch a wider mood, and the chapter finishes with a discussion of why this has been the case.
Michael Kenny
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199608614
- eISBN:
- 9780191775208
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199608614.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
The concluding chapter rehearses the principal arguments set out in each of the preceding chapters. It focuses on the question of why English nationalism has not developed as a mass phenomenon in ...
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The concluding chapter rehearses the principal arguments set out in each of the preceding chapters. It focuses on the question of why English nationalism has not developed as a mass phenomenon in this period, and points to the enduring force of an understanding of Englishness as intertwined with an affiliation to Britain. It also draws attention to the growing political and cultural salience of appeals to English nationhood, and points to the prospects for greater engagement by the main political parties with this trend. It finishes by considering two relatively unexplored, but increasingly vital, questions. These are, first, from what sources might a civic idea of English nationhood be cast? And, second, how might politicians and policy-makers reconcile the growing emphasis upon sub-state communities of attachment — including to the imagined community of England — and the imperative to legitimate the multi-national unions to which the English appear increasingly reluctant to belong?Less
The concluding chapter rehearses the principal arguments set out in each of the preceding chapters. It focuses on the question of why English nationalism has not developed as a mass phenomenon in this period, and points to the enduring force of an understanding of Englishness as intertwined with an affiliation to Britain. It also draws attention to the growing political and cultural salience of appeals to English nationhood, and points to the prospects for greater engagement by the main political parties with this trend. It finishes by considering two relatively unexplored, but increasingly vital, questions. These are, first, from what sources might a civic idea of English nationhood be cast? And, second, how might politicians and policy-makers reconcile the growing emphasis upon sub-state communities of attachment — including to the imagined community of England — and the imperative to legitimate the multi-national unions to which the English appear increasingly reluctant to belong?
Ailsa Henderson
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- April 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198870784
- eISBN:
- 9780191913389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198870784.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
Finally, Chapter 8 focuses on the analytical challenges posed by English nationalism. We explore how the academic literature on nationalism helps us better to understand the politicized English ...
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Finally, Chapter 8 focuses on the analytical challenges posed by English nationalism. We explore how the academic literature on nationalism helps us better to understand the politicized English identity that has been the subject of the previous chapters, including the relationship between English and British nationalism. We also outline methodological and infrastructural implications of our findings for the future study of ‘British politics’ if we are to take England and Englishness seriously.Less
Finally, Chapter 8 focuses on the analytical challenges posed by English nationalism. We explore how the academic literature on nationalism helps us better to understand the politicized English identity that has been the subject of the previous chapters, including the relationship between English and British nationalism. We also outline methodological and infrastructural implications of our findings for the future study of ‘British politics’ if we are to take England and Englishness seriously.
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780853237945
- eISBN:
- 9781846313936
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853237945.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
This chapter examines Thomas De Quincey's criticisms of German philosophy and literature in comparison with Coleridge's, and shows the similar ideological constraints that operate on De Quincey's ...
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This chapter examines Thomas De Quincey's criticisms of German philosophy and literature in comparison with Coleridge's, and shows the similar ideological constraints that operate on De Quincey's mediation of German thought in England. De Quincey's seemingly disingenuous use of his German sources – like Samuel Taylor Coleridge's – reflects his involvement in the construction of English nationalism, built ironically on the very foundations both writers explicitly sought to undermine.Less
This chapter examines Thomas De Quincey's criticisms of German philosophy and literature in comparison with Coleridge's, and shows the similar ideological constraints that operate on De Quincey's mediation of German thought in England. De Quincey's seemingly disingenuous use of his German sources – like Samuel Taylor Coleridge's – reflects his involvement in the construction of English nationalism, built ironically on the very foundations both writers explicitly sought to undermine.
Thomas Docherty
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526132741
- eISBN:
- 9781526138965
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526132741.003.0006
- Subject:
- Education, Educational Policy and Politics
The crisis in higher education is also simultaneously a crisis in constitutional democracies; and the two are intimately linked. The corruption of language that shapes managerialist discourse enables ...
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The crisis in higher education is also simultaneously a crisis in constitutional democracies; and the two are intimately linked. The corruption of language that shapes managerialist discourse enables a corruption in the communications among citizens that are vital in any democracy. Democracy becomes recast first as an alleged ‘will of the people’, but a will whose semantic content is prone to political manipulation. In turn this opens the way to a validation of demagogic populism that masquerades as democracy when it is in fact the very thing that undermines democracy. When the University sector becomes complicit with this – as it is in our times – then it engages in a fundamental betrayal of the actual people in the society it claims to serve. Populism thrives on the celebration of anti-intellectual ignorance and the contempt for expertise, preferring instead the supposedly more ‘natural’ claims of instinctive faith over reason. Lurking within this is a form of class warfare that treats real and actual working class life as contemptible.Less
The crisis in higher education is also simultaneously a crisis in constitutional democracies; and the two are intimately linked. The corruption of language that shapes managerialist discourse enables a corruption in the communications among citizens that are vital in any democracy. Democracy becomes recast first as an alleged ‘will of the people’, but a will whose semantic content is prone to political manipulation. In turn this opens the way to a validation of demagogic populism that masquerades as democracy when it is in fact the very thing that undermines democracy. When the University sector becomes complicit with this – as it is in our times – then it engages in a fundamental betrayal of the actual people in the society it claims to serve. Populism thrives on the celebration of anti-intellectual ignorance and the contempt for expertise, preferring instead the supposedly more ‘natural’ claims of instinctive faith over reason. Lurking within this is a form of class warfare that treats real and actual working class life as contemptible.
Ciaran Brady
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199668038
- eISBN:
- 9780191748677
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199668038.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Cultural History
Arguing against conventional assumptions, this chapter suggests that far from being a sign of his intellectual immaturity and weakness, Froude’s encounter with Newman through the hagiographical ...
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Arguing against conventional assumptions, this chapter suggests that far from being a sign of his intellectual immaturity and weakness, Froude’s encounter with Newman through the hagiographical project—‘The Lives of the English Saints’—was a further stage in his independent intellectual development. A full analysis follows of Froude’s own contribution to the series: the Legend of St Neot, which, through a comparison with other contributions in the set, reveals Froude’s very distinctive approach that has already invoked Carlyle as a balance against Newman. The seriousness of Froude’s distinctive approach to hagiography is underlined by his desire to write a life of St Patrick. But the project, it is argued, had the unintended effect of bringing Froude into direct experience with one of the central preoccupations of his later life: the condition of Ireland, and its influence upon the historical destiny of England itself.Less
Arguing against conventional assumptions, this chapter suggests that far from being a sign of his intellectual immaturity and weakness, Froude’s encounter with Newman through the hagiographical project—‘The Lives of the English Saints’—was a further stage in his independent intellectual development. A full analysis follows of Froude’s own contribution to the series: the Legend of St Neot, which, through a comparison with other contributions in the set, reveals Froude’s very distinctive approach that has already invoked Carlyle as a balance against Newman. The seriousness of Froude’s distinctive approach to hagiography is underlined by his desire to write a life of St Patrick. But the project, it is argued, had the unintended effect of bringing Froude into direct experience with one of the central preoccupations of his later life: the condition of Ireland, and its influence upon the historical destiny of England itself.
Alison Morgan
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781784993122
- eISBN:
- 9781526138668
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781784993122.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The words ‘liberty’ or ‘freedom’ feature in forty-three poems in this collection, indicative of the centrality of this theme to the radical discourse of the day. In an era of almost unprecedented ...
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The words ‘liberty’ or ‘freedom’ feature in forty-three poems in this collection, indicative of the centrality of this theme to the radical discourse of the day. In an era of almost unprecedented repression and the curtailment of rights, working people wished to rid themselves of their chains and reclaim their lost liberties, as a way of asserting English nationalism in the face of a ‘foreign’ monarchy. The twelve poems and songs in this section celebrate both the forthcoming return of liberty, presented as a goddess, and Henry Hunt as liberty’s human representative. The restoration of liberty as an end to slavery is a common trope within English radical discourse and poems often depict the radical patriot endeavouring to rescue his country from an imposed and unnatural tyranny and return it to its true state of liberty; however, this trope predates the era of revolution when such rhetoric was common currency and this section explores the prevalence of the theme of liberty in the mid-eighteenth century and the subsequent influence of William Collins and Thomas Gray on the poems in this collection. The introduction also seeks to explain the lack of references to the transatlantic slave trade in these poems at a time when the issue of rights was at the fore. It includes poems written by Samuel Bamford and the Spencean Robert Wedderburn.Less
The words ‘liberty’ or ‘freedom’ feature in forty-three poems in this collection, indicative of the centrality of this theme to the radical discourse of the day. In an era of almost unprecedented repression and the curtailment of rights, working people wished to rid themselves of their chains and reclaim their lost liberties, as a way of asserting English nationalism in the face of a ‘foreign’ monarchy. The twelve poems and songs in this section celebrate both the forthcoming return of liberty, presented as a goddess, and Henry Hunt as liberty’s human representative. The restoration of liberty as an end to slavery is a common trope within English radical discourse and poems often depict the radical patriot endeavouring to rescue his country from an imposed and unnatural tyranny and return it to its true state of liberty; however, this trope predates the era of revolution when such rhetoric was common currency and this section explores the prevalence of the theme of liberty in the mid-eighteenth century and the subsequent influence of William Collins and Thomas Gray on the poems in this collection. The introduction also seeks to explain the lack of references to the transatlantic slave trade in these poems at a time when the issue of rights was at the fore. It includes poems written by Samuel Bamford and the Spencean Robert Wedderburn.
William John Lyons
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199695911
- eISBN:
- 9780191773754
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695911.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies, Religion and Literature
This chapter discusses how the idea of Jesus visiting England offers an even more powerful urge to nationalistic fervour than the comparatively mundane story of Joseph of Arimathea bringing ...
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This chapter discusses how the idea of Jesus visiting England offers an even more powerful urge to nationalistic fervour than the comparatively mundane story of Joseph of Arimathea bringing Christianity to England and founding its first church at Glastonbury. In the poetic section of William Blake's preface to some early editions of his epic poem Milton (1804), the four stanzas now known as ‘Jerusalem’ demonstrate the political and the literary elide in a work whose value to English nationalism and to the British Empire would be hard to overestimate since being set to music by Sir Hubert Parry in 1916. The examples discussed include Empire Day (24 May); the ‘Jam and Jerusalem’ of the Women's Institute; English national sporting anthems (football, cricket, and, most recently, as the official national anthem, chosen by public vote, for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi); its triumphant appearance on the Order of Service for the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in Westminster Abbey in April 2011; and its use in the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games.Less
This chapter discusses how the idea of Jesus visiting England offers an even more powerful urge to nationalistic fervour than the comparatively mundane story of Joseph of Arimathea bringing Christianity to England and founding its first church at Glastonbury. In the poetic section of William Blake's preface to some early editions of his epic poem Milton (1804), the four stanzas now known as ‘Jerusalem’ demonstrate the political and the literary elide in a work whose value to English nationalism and to the British Empire would be hard to overestimate since being set to music by Sir Hubert Parry in 1916. The examples discussed include Empire Day (24 May); the ‘Jam and Jerusalem’ of the Women's Institute; English national sporting anthems (football, cricket, and, most recently, as the official national anthem, chosen by public vote, for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi); its triumphant appearance on the Order of Service for the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in Westminster Abbey in April 2011; and its use in the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games.
