What did it mean in the first half of this century to say `I am English?' A Practical Sourcebook on National Identity is a unique collection of extracts from writing of the era, all of which in some way raise this question. Drawn from a wide range of sources including letters, diaries, journalism, fiction, poems, parliamentary speeches and government reports, the volume is divided into five sections: * The Ideas and Ideals of Englishness * Versions of Rural England * War and National Identity * Culture and Englishness * Domestic and Urban Englands The editors provide an introduction to each section and conclude with suggested study activities and further reading. It also contains a chronology and bibliography, completing the framework for study. A Practical Sourcebook on National Identity is a fascinating collection which will not only be essential and accessible reading for students, but will also appeal to anyone who has ever asked what it means to become part of a national identity.

What did it mean in the first half of this century to say `I am English?' A Practical Sourcebook on National Identity is a unique collection of extracts from writing of the era, all of which in some way raise this question. Drawn from a wide range of sources including letters, diaries, journalism, fiction, poems, parliamentary speeches and government reports, the volume is divided into five sections: * The Ideas and Ideals of Englishness * Versions of Rural England * War and National Identity * Culture and Englishness * Domestic and Urban Englands The editors provide an introduction to each section and conclude with suggested study activities and further reading. It also contains a chronology and bibliography, completing the framework for study. A Practical Sourcebook on National Identity is a fascinating collection which will not only be essential and accessible reading for students, but will also appeal to anyone who has ever asked what it means to become part of a national identity.

What did it mean in the first half of this century to say `I am English?' A Practical Sourcebook on National Identity is a unique collection of extracts from writing of the era, all of which in some way raise this question. Drawn from a wide range of sources including letters, diaries, journalism, fiction, poems, parliamentary speeches and government reports, the volume is divided into five sections: * The Ideas and Ideals of Englishness * Versions of Rural England * War and National Identity * Culture and Englishness * Domestic and Urban Englands The editors provide an introduction to each section and conclude with suggested study activities and further reading. It also contains a chronology and bibliography, completing the framework for study. A Practical Sourcebook on National Identity is a fascinating collection which will not only be essential and accessible reading for students, but will also appeal to anyone who has ever asked what it means to become part of a national identity.

The English Studies Book is uniquely designed to support students and teachers working across the full range of language, literature and culture. Combining the functions of study guide, critical dictionary and text anthology, it has rapidly established itself as a core text on a wide variety of degree programmes nationally and internationally. Revised and updated throughout, features of the second edition include: * a new prologue addressing changes and challenges in English Studies * substantial entries on over 100 key critical and theoretical terms, from 'absence' and 'author' to 'text' and 'versification' - with new entries on 'creative writing', 'travel writing' and 'translation' * practical introductions to all the major theoretical approaches, with new sections on aesthetics, ethics, ecology and sexuality * a rich anthology of literary and related texts from Anglo-Saxon to Afro-Caribbean, with fresh selections representing the sonnet, haiku, slave narratives and science fiction, and with additional texts by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Charles Darwin, Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood, Amy Tan and others * handy frameworks and checklists for close reading, research, essay writing and other textual activities, including use of the Internet.

Studying English Literature and Language is unique in offering both an introduction and a companion for students taking English Literature and Language degrees. Combining the functions of study guide, critical dictionary and text anthology, this is a freshly recast version of the highly acclaimed The English Studies Book. This third edition features: fresh sections on the essential skills and study strategies needed to complete a degree in English—from close reading, research and referencing to full guidelines and tips on essay-writing, participating in seminars, presentations and revision an authoritative guide to the life skills, further study options and career pathways open to graduates of the subject updated introductions to the major theoretical positions and approaches taken by scholars in the field, from earlier twentieth century practical criticism to the latest global and ecological perspectives extensive entries on key terms such as ‘author, ‘genre’, ‘narrative’ and ‘translation’ widely current in debates across language, literature and culture coverage of both local and global varieties of the English language in a range of media and discourses, including news, advertising, text messaging, rap, pop and street art an expansive anthology representing genres and discourses from early elegy and novel to contemporary performance, flash fiction, including writers as diverse as Aphra Behn, Emily Dickinson, J.M. Coetzee, Angela Carter, Russell Hoban, Adrienne Rich and Arundhati Roy a comprehensive, regularly updated companion website supplying further information and activities, sample analyses and a wealth of stimulating and reliable links to further online resources. Studying English Literature and Language is a wide-ranging and invaluable reference for anyone interested in the study of English language, literature and culture.

Studies of the English gentleman have tended to focus mainly on the nineteenth century, encouraging the implicit assumption that this influential literary trope has less resonance for twentieth-century literature and culture. Christine Berberich challenges this notion by showing that the English gentleman has proven to be a remarkably adaptable and relevant ideal that continues to influence not only literature but other forms of representation, including the media and advertising industries. Focusing on Siegfried Sassoon, Anthony Powell, Evelyn Waugh and Kazuo Ishiguro, whose presentations of the gentlemanly ideal are analysed in their specific cultural, historical, and sociological contexts, Berberich pays particular attention to the role of nostalgia and its relationship to 'Englishness'. Though 'Englishness' and by extension the English gentleman continue to be linked to depictions of England as the green and pleasant land of imagined bygone days, Berberich counterbalances this perception by showing that the figure of the English gentleman is the medium through which these authors and many of their contemporaries critique the shifting mores of contemporary society. Twentieth-century depictions of the gentleman thus have much to tell us about rapidly changing conceptions of national, class, and gender identity.

Englishness and Post-imperial Space: The Poetry of Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes probes into the English mindset immediately after the British withdrawal from the colonies, and examines how the loss of power and global prestige affected contemporary poetry, particularly that of Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes. Frustration and disillusionment, even anger, characterised the era and many of the literary works the period produced. Most writers became insular and were obsessed with the ‘English’ elements in their writing. The great, international and cosmopolitan themes (of Eliot, for instance) were replaced by those of narrow domestic importance. It is in such a context, this book argues, that Larkin and Hughes returned to the old England, most notably to the themes of gradually vanishing pristine landscape and national myths and legends, to the archetypal English customs and conventions. It examines their poetry mainly from the perspective of Englishness, a burgeoning area of academic interest. Intricately connected with the values emanating from England as a geographical and socio-cultural space, Englishness as a concept is intrinsic to the identity of a people who gradually became globally powerful. The loss of empire dealt a severe blow to this sense of the self. This book explores the dynamics of the representation of this sense of loss and the frustration it produced in the poems of Larkin and Hughes.