This study argues that nationalism is concerned not only with relations and differences between rival nations, but is also related to questions of class, power, and representation within nations. It explores the development of a conservative form of nationalism in England which, following Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Late Revolution in France (1790), elaborates a defence of the hegemony of the aristocracy, in response to the increasing economic and cultural power of the middle class, born of the rapid growth of commercial and industrial economy. Literature is central in the development of this nationalism, and writings by Coleridge, Wordsworth, Scott, Disraeli, and more briefly, Dickens are considered. There are two distinct images of nationhood in England in the period. These are on the one hand a vision of nationhood which links the nation to the existence of a public, a residual aristocratic ideal of the nation which is defined within the terms of the discourse of civic humanism, and on the other hand a vision of England which identifies English nationhood with rural society, village community, and the private and domestic space of the home; an ideal of the nation which emerges in relation to commercial and industrial culture, and which becomes identified with the middle class. These two ideals of nationhood become the focus of a struggle of representations between aristocracy and middle class. The tensions which this struggle between these conflicting images of the English nation creates are explored, considering their implications for the politics and representation of national, class, and gender identities. This study demonstrates that debates about the movement from a landbased pre-industrial to an industrial society are framed within a broader debate about the nature and meanings of Englishness and English nationhood. The relationship of this nationalism to developing discourses of imperialism is also explored.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:360531 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Lake, Anthony |
| Publisher | University of Sussex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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