ENGLISHNESS VS BRITISHNESS
May 26th, 2008 adminThere is an interesting tit-for-tat over on Open Democracy between Vron Ware and Paul Kingsnorth.
Kingsnorth writes a critical review of Ware’s book Who Cares About Britishness? Read it here.
And Ware has now responded, setting out the fundamental differences between her approach to national identity and that of Kingsnorth in Real England. She writes:
“I bought Paul Kingsnorth’s book Real England a few weeks ago after reading a positive review of it. I was enthusiastic about his project of bringing an anti-globalisation perspective to the destruction of England’s distinctive environments as I also feel passionately about this. I have been writing about a particular English locality for ten years now, tracking the impact of global forces on every area of life. I’ve also been working on and against racism and nationalism, attentive to the past and future relationships between Britain and England. When I read him I realised that there are differences between us. Now, Kingsnorth’s mean-spirited and inaccurate review of my book commissioned by the British Council, Who Cares About Britishness? A global view of the national identity debate (Arcadia, 2007) suggests that there is little common ground between us. Rather than just respond to his attack I’d like to assess his whole approach.
Kingsnorth employs the well-worn method of identifying the ‘Real England’ by travelling around the country to document a tale of damage, decline and neglect. The portrait of Englishness that he paints conveys a lament for better times, coupled with a reluctance to protest effectively at the destruction of ‘ways of life’ and institutions that once developed out of local, English culture. I thought the book would also bring an added dimension, especially since George Monbiot’s recommendation on the front cover announces that the book ‘helps to shape our view of who we are and who we want to be’……”
Read the rest of her article here.