Cultural identities and the aesthetics of Britishness / edited by Dana Arnold.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Arnold, Dana.

Series:

Studies in imperialism (Manchester, England)

Studies in imperialism

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

National characteristics, British.

Group identity.

Great Britain--Ethnic relations.

Great Britain.

Ethnic relations.

Group identity--Great Britain.

National characteristics, Irish.

Great Britain--Civilization.

Civilization.

Ethnology--Great Britain.

Ethnology.

Aesthetics, British.

Imperialism.

Physical Description:

xi, 205 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Manchester, UK ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York : Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave, 2004.

Summary:

The need for a single public culture -- or the creation of an authentic identity -- is fundamental to our understanding of nationalism and nationhood. But how are these cultural identities expressed? This book examines British imperial and colonial national identities within their political and social contexts. By considering the export, adoption and creation of such cultural identities, these essays show how nationhood and nationalism are self-consciously defined tools designed to focus and inspire loyalty. As such, they are integral to the larger process of constructing a public culture.

The contributors to this fascinating and timely collection present these ideas with particular reference to British cultural identity and its interaction with the 'empire'. They examine the national, imperial and colonial aesthetic -- how architecture, landscape, prints, painting, monuments and literature were used, appropriated and re-appropriated in the furtherance of social and political agendas, and how this impacted on the making of 'Britishness' in all its complexities. It is demonstrated that aesthetic culture re-enforced the dominant political and social ideology as well as representing and reconstructing the notion of British national identity.

Cultural identities and the aesthetics of Britishness will be of interest to those studying the effect of the empire on Britain, and to those researching wider issues of British identity.

Contents:

1 Robert Bowyer's Historic Gallery and the feminization of the 'nation' / Cynthia E. Roman 15

2 Re-visioning landscape in Wales and New South Wales, c. 1760-1840 / Jocelyn Hackforth-Jones 35

3 The country house is just like a flag / Sophia Cross 53

4 Trans-planting national cultures: the Phoenix Park, Dublin (1832-49), an urban heterotopia? / Dana Arnold 67

5 Two nations, twice: national identity in The Wild Irish Girl and Sybil / Andrew Ballantyne 87

6 Monumental nationalism: Layard's Assyrian discoveries and the formations of British national identity / Frederick N. Bohrer 99

7 Union and display in nineteenth-century Ireland / Fintan Cullen 111

8 Gentlemen connoisseurs and capitalists: modern British imperial identity in the 1903 Delhi durbar's exhibition of Indian art / Julie F. Codell 134

9 Albion's legacy

myth, history and 'the Matter of Britain' / Sam Smiles 164

10 Architecture and 'national projection' between the wars / Mark Crinson 182.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0719067685

0719067693

OCLC:

53434882