scholarly journals “A lie that pandered to racism and xenophobia”

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orlaith Darling
Keyword(s):  
British Society ◽  
British History ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
British Identity ◽  
British Press ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Breeding And Genetics ◽  
Second World

Perhaps one of the most significant votes in British history occurred in June 2016. Primarily dominated by buzzwords such as ‘control’, ‘borders’ and ‘immigration’, Brexit has been a hugely divisive process for the UK. This division and internal wall-building is nowhere more evident than in domestic British race relations; indeed, in the week following the referendum, the number of racial hate crimes committed rose by 500%. This article examines the idea of borders in a contemporary British context, drawing on historic and recurrent iterations of empire (historical colonialism and the Windrush Scandal) and the Second World War as a founding national mythologies. It argues that Brexit represents post-war paranoia regarding European invasion, nostalgia for the glory days of Empire, and a fear of the post-colonial ‘other’ as a threat to monolithic tenets of British identity. Zadie Smith’s novel, White Teeth, is harnessed throughout as a means of giving literary scope to these arguments, and as a means of highlighting how this manic obsession with borders is a long-standing aspect of British life (the novel was published in 2000 and therefore preceded the Brexit conversation). Moreover, discussion of the themes of non-white British identities, inter-racial breeding and genetics in Smith’s novel will be placed alongside a contemplation of ‘maternity tourism’ which has recently abounded in the British press. ‘Maternity tourism’ comprises, I argue, a fear of the post-colonial female body and a distrust of the maternal body as a weak border which threatens the cohesive, white homogeneity of British society.

Reluctant European

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Wall
Keyword(s):  
British History ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
The Common ◽  
Post War ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Economic Need ◽  
Do So

In 2016, the voters of the United Kingdom decided to leave the European Union. The majority for ‘Leave’ was small. Yet, in more than forty years of EU membership, the British had never been wholeheartedly content. In the 1950s, governments preferred the Commonwealth to the Common Market. In the 1960s, successive Conservative and Labour administrations applied to join the European Community because it was a surprising success, whilst the UK’s post-war policies had failed. But the British were turned down by the French. When the UK did join, twelve years after first asking, it joined a club whose rules had been made by others and which it did not much like. At one time or another, Labour and Conservative were at war with each other and internally. In 1975, the Labour government held a referendum on whether the UK should stay in. Two thirds of the voters decided to do so. But the wounds did not heal. Europe remained ‘them’, not ‘us’. The UK was on the front foot in proposing reform and modernization and on the back foot as other EU members wanted to advance to ‘ever closer union’. This book tells the story of a relationship rooted in a thousand years of British history, and of our sense of national identity in conflict with our political and economic need for partnership with continental Europe.

‘It was good to get out into the fresh air after seeing this film’: Horror, Realism and Censorship in Post-Second World War Britain

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-115
Author(s):  
Paul Frith
Keyword(s):  
Social Issue ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Other ◽  
World War ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
British Cinema ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Second World

Existing research on British cinema during the 1940s has often assumed an opposition between realism and fantasy or, as it is also known, ‘realism and tinsel’. However, through an analysis of contemporary critical reception and censorship discourses, it becomes apparent that this division was nowhere near as clearly defined as is often argued. While the ‘quality’ realist film of the 1940s demonstrates a concern with verisimilitude and the reproduction of the surface appearances of reality, when confronting the darker aspects of reality, realism was deemed to be far more closely associated with the horrific. Following a number of decisions made by the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) which were heavily criticised by the local authorities and the press, the Board became increasingly wary of these horrific confrontations with the everyday. The release of The Snake Pit (1948) in the UK sparked a series of debates in the press, with one side questioning the suitability of a film dealing with the particularly sensitive subject matter of mental illness for the purpose of shocking and horrifying audiences, and the other side championing the maturity shown by Hollywood when dealing with an important social issue. This article therefore looks beyond traditional perceptions of 1940s British cinema in order to demonstrate a shift in the role played by both realism and horror in the post-war period.

Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room (1956) as a Transgressive White-Life Novel

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-204
Author(s):  
Loredana Bercuci
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Black Writers ◽  
The Novel ◽  
World War ◽  
White Masculinity ◽  
War Fiction ◽  
Visual Metaphors ◽  
Post War ◽  
Second World

"James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room (1956) as a Transgressive White-Life Novel. In the wake of the Second World War, American literature saw the rise of a type of novel that is little known today: the white-life novel. This type of novel is written by black writers but describes white characters acting in a mostly white milieu. While at the time African-American critics praised this new way of writing as a sign of maturity, many have since criticized it for being regressive by pandering to white tastes. This paper sets out to analyze the most famous of these novels, namely James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room (1956). It is my contention that Giovanni’s Room connects blackness and queerness through the use of visual metaphors in the novel, disrupting thus the post-war consensus on ideals of white masculinity. The novel, while seemingly abandoning black protagonists, enacts a subtle critique of white heteronormativity akin to Baldwin’s own positioning within American thought of the post-war era. Keywords: blackness, James Baldwin, post-war fiction, queer, white-life novel "

scholarly journals Brexit, boundaries and imperial identities: A comparative view

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The European Union ◽  
British Identity ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Second World

The year 2016 will be marked as a year in which identity politics reached new levels of significance. Among numerous dramatic events, the UK referendum on membership of the European Union has brought many issues of interest to archaeologists to the fore. These range from entirely contemporary concerns, such as the future of research funding in Britain, to topics of more longitudinal significance, including the interactions between different identity groups in particular economic and political circumstances. In this paper, I wish to explore aspects of the distinctive position of Britain as an illustration of identity dynamics in the long term, focussing on the relationship between imperialism and identities and viewed through the lens of recent work in Border Studies. Brexit can be seen as the culmination of the collapse of the British empire, and transformation of British identity, in the post-Second World War era and the particular dynamics of this process invite comparison with Britain’s earlier position as one of the frontier provinces of the Roman empire, especially in the 4th and 5th centuries AD. This comparison reveals two paradoxical dimensions of imperial identities, the first being that so-called ‘peripheries’ can be more important than ‘cores’ in the creation of imperial identities and the second that such identities can be simultaneously ideologically powerful yet practically fragile in the circumstances which follow imperial collapse. Such insights are important because, at a time of apparently resurgent nationalism in many countries, archaeologists need to work harder than ever to understand identity dynamics with the benefit of time depth.

scholarly journals HISTORICIZING CITIZENSHIP IN POST-WAR BRITAIN

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 1187-1206 ◽  
Author(s):  
MATTHEW GRANT
Keyword(s):  
Legal Status ◽  
British Society ◽  
British History ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Citizenship Rights ◽  
National Community ◽  
Post War

AbstractCitizenship has been widely debated in post-war British history, yet historians discuss the concept in very different, and potentially contradictory, ways. In doing so, historians are largely following in the footsteps of post-war politicians, thinkers, and ordinary people, who showed that citizenship could – and did – mean very different things. The alternative ways of framing the concept can be usefully described as the three registers of citizenship. First, there are the political and legal definitions of what makes any individual a citizen. Secondly, there is the notion of belonging to a national community, an understanding of citizenship which highlights that legal status alone cannot guarantee an individual's ability to practise citizenship rights. Thirdly, there is the idea of citizenship as divided between ‘good’ or ‘active’ citizens, and ‘bad’ or ‘passive’ ones, a differential understanding of citizenship which has proved very influential in debates about British society. This article reviews these registers, and concludes by arguing that all three must be taken into account if we are to comprehend properly the nature and citizenship as both status and practice in post-war Britain.

Clive Bell, ‘a fathead and a voluptuary’: Conscientious Objection and British Masculinity

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Hussey
Keyword(s):  
Subjective Experience ◽  
British Society ◽  
Conscientious Objector ◽  
World War ◽  
Individual Liberty ◽  
Patriarchal Family ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Post War ◽  
Second World ◽  
First World

Hussey shows that Clive Bell was a lifelong rebel. His tireless championing of individual liberty as the paramount value of political and social organisation, and of subjective experience as the proper basis for aesthetics pervades his writings on art, society, history and politics. He proselytized for the radically new art of the early twentieth century and for pacifism before and during the First World War. He excoriated the puritanical strictures of post-war England and its appeasement and adherence to untenable ideals in the late 1930s and Second World War. In his close identification with the conscientious objector issue, Bell, though heterosexual, is representative of queer Bloomsbury’s challenge to heteronormativity and the patriarchal family. As nationalist and homophobic rhetoric converged at war’s end, Bell’s writings deplored the lasting effects on British society of the government’s suppression of thought and expression during the war, including queer thought and homosexual expression.

The Post-Imperial Era and Japan

2020 ◽  
pp. 168-193
Author(s):  
Graham Harrison
Keyword(s):  
National Development ◽  
World Order ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Modern Development ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Development Politics ◽  
Post War ◽  
Second World

The chapter starts with an overview of the rise of modern development politics, showing how it was a manifestation of post-imperial sovereignty in a world order constructed by Britain, America, and other developed capitalist nations. It emphasizes the challenge of sovereignty and nationalism for post-colonial governance. It highlights the historical features of urgency, insecurity, and nationalism for post-colonial developmentalism. It then offers a treatment of Japan as a post-imperial developer. Commencing with the establishing of a national economy in the late 1700s, the chapter focuses on the Meiji politics of national development through imperialism and support for large companies. It focuses on the post-Second World War recovery and sustained transformation. It reviews the role of the state, the insecurities of post-war governance, the national vision of business, and the role of America. The chapter outlines the mass social improvements that resulted from capitalist transformation.

PAT BARKER’S «REGENERATION» IN THE LIGHT OF THE LITERARY TRADITION OF THE XXTH CENTURY

2019 ◽  
pp. 70-81
Author(s):  
Oleg Pokhalenkov
Keyword(s):  
English Literature ◽  
British Society ◽  
Great War ◽  
Central Character ◽  
The Novel ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Artistic Image ◽  
The Great War

The article is devoted to the comparative analysis of the works belong to the English war prose about the Great War. Despite the fact that in many European literatures the First World War is no longer a central artistic image (due to the shift of focus to the Second World War), in the UK the attention to the preservation of the memory of the Great War is still maintained. The novel «Regeneration» by P. Barker is an example of a modern interpretation of this topic. The writer does not abandon the existing tradition in the English literature («Death of a Hero» by R. Aldington) and even more clearly shows hypocrisy of the British society. As once the central character of the novel «Death of a Hero» by R. Aldington, the Barker’s hero refuses to adapt socially to what is happening at the front. Experiencing the English snobbery because of his origin, watching the death of his colleagues, he is aware of the lies and propaganda from the state and begins to consider his participation in the war as a kind of springboard for further successful life after it.

scholarly journals ‘A Slice of Life’: Food Narratives and Menus from Mass-Observers in 1982 and 1945

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Nettleton ◽  
Emma Uprichard
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Second World War ◽  
British History ◽  
World War ◽  
Age Cohorts ◽  
Food Diaries ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Second World ◽  
Insight Into

This paper reports on an analysis of hitherto unexamined documentary data on food held within the UK Mass Observation Archive (MOA). In particular it discusses responses to the 1982 Winter Directive which asked MOA correspondents about their experiences of food and eating, and the food diaries submitted by MOA panel members in 1945. What is striking about these data is the extent to which memories of food and eating are interwoven with recollections of the lifecourse; in particular social relations, family life, and work. It seems asking people about food generates insight into aspects of everyday life. In essence, memories of food provide a crucial and potentially overlooked medium for developing an appreciation of social change. We propose the concept ‘food narratives’ to capture the essence of these reflections because they reveal something more than personal stories; they are both individual and collective experiences in that personal food narratives draw upon shared cultural repertoires, generational memories, and tensions between age cohorts. Food narratives are embodied and embedded in social networks, socio-cultural contexts and socio-economic epochs. Thus the daily menus recorded in 1945 and memories scribed in 1982 do not simply communicate what people ate, liked and disliked but throw light on two contrasting moments of British history; the end of the second world war and an era of transition, reform, individualization, diversity which was taking place in the early 1980s.

scholarly journals Nogi. Męskość i niepełnosprawność w Szpitalu Czerwonego Krzyża Michała Choromańskiego

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arleta Galant
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Gender Roles ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Novel ◽  
World War ◽  
Post War ◽  
Masculine Gender Roles ◽  
Second World ◽  
Masculine Gender

In the article, the author presents an interpretation of the novel Szpital Czerwonego Krzyża by Michał Choromański. One of the key interpretative hypothesis advanced by the author of the article based on a reading of the novel is the assumption that the work constitutes an important statement on masculinity and disability, exposing the artificiality and unoriginality of masculine gender roles and criticizing somatic culture. This criticism is, in turn, significant with regard to twentieth-century reflections on body issues in post-war modernity. The author of the article indicates that Choromański’s work, written before the Second World War but published not until 1956, is a piece of significancefor the reconstruction of issues of disability in terms of Polish literary history.

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