Literature of an Independent England: Revisions of England, Englishness, and English Literature

Some of the most incisive writers on the subject rethink the relationship between Britain, England and English literary culture. It is premised on the importance of devolution, the uncertainty of the British union, the place of English Literature within the union, and the need for England to become a self-determining literary nation. This interdisciplinary collection is a first step in the process of dismantling the imperial and unionist dominance of the discipline of English Literature and building a literary history and national literature of England. The collection brings together some of the best known and most incisive commentators on England, Englishness and English Literature from political and literary fields in order to rethink the relationship between Britain, England and English literary culture. It is premised on the importance of devolution, the uncertainty of the British Union, the place of English Literature within the Union, and the need for England to become a self-determining literary nation. The collection comprises fifteen essays, organised into four parts, moving from political discussions of the form of a devolved or independent England, through a consideration of England in canonical and contemporary literature, to an exploration of the role of the national in English Literature's disciplinary logic Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction....Pages 1-11 Front Matter....Pages 13-13 Understanding the Post-British English Nation State....Pages 15-30 The Future of ‘the Global Kingdom’: Post-Unionism, Post-Nationalism and the Politics of Voice, Loyalty, and Exit....Pages 31-45 ‘England Is the Country and the Country Is England’: But What of the Politics?....Pages 46-59 Front Matter....Pages 61-61 Romantic Englishness: Periodical Writing and National Identity After the Napoleonic Wars....Pages 63-76 ‘Out-of-the-Way Asiatic Disease’: Contagion, Malingering, and Sherlock’s England....Pages 77-90 A. J. Cook, D. H. Lawrence, and Revolutionary England: Discourses and Performances of Region and Nation in 1926....Pages 91-102 ‘England Am I ... ’: Eugenics, Devolution, and Virginia Woolf’s Between the Acts ....Pages 103-115 Orwell’s England and Blair’s Britain: Warm Beer and Cold War....Pages 116-129 Anticipating the Neoliberal Nation: Philip Larkin and the Displacement of Englishness....Pages 130-144 Front Matter....Pages 145-145 J. G. Ballard’s Traumatised and Traumatising Englishness....Pages 147-161 England, Devolution, and Fictional Kingdoms....Pages 162-174 Black British Writing and Post-British England....Pages 175-187 Devolution and Cultural Catch-Up: Decoupling England and its Literature from English Literature....Pages 188-199 Front Matter....Pages 201-201 English Literature as Ideology....Pages 203-217 The New Rise and Fall of English Literature....Pages 218-233 Afterword....Pages 234-239 Back Matter....Pages 240-253 "This interdisciplinary collection is a first step in the process of dismantling the imperial and unionist dominance of the discipline of English Literature and building a literary history and national literature of England. The collection brings together some of the best known and most incisive commentators on England, Englishness and English Literature from political and literary fields in order to rethink the relationship between Britain, England and English literary culture. It is premised on the importance of devolution, the uncertainty of the British Union, the place of English Literature within the Union, and the need for England to become a self-determining literary nation. The collection comprises fifteen essays, organised into four parts, moving from political discussions of the form of a devolved or independent England, through a consideration of England in canonical and contemporary literature, to an exploration of the role of the national in English Literature's disciplinary logic"-- Provided by publisher