Suchergebnisse

In a situation of national identity crisis due to the loss of Empire, globalization and mass migration, Britain has recently been looking for a new orientation of its role in the world. Being an attempt to influence and change the conception of Britishness, New Labour's modernization programme in the 1997 general election illustrates the way national identities, understood as imagined communities, are artificially and conveniently constructed by the political elite. Similarly, history writing, essential for the constitution of the national identity, undergoes an analogous process in which historical accounts are manipulated to exhibit convenient versions of the nation's past. In this context, Julian Barnes's novel England, England (1998) epitomizes a satirical portrayal of the artful construction of Englishness, hyperbolizing New Labour's modernization project. ; Al encontrarse Gran Bretaña en un periodo de crisis de identidad nacional, ha buscado recientemente una nueva orientación a su postura exterior en el mundo. El programa de modernización de New Labour en las elecciones generales de 1997 fue un intento de influir y modificar la concepción de "Britanidad", lo que demuestra que la identidad nacional, entendida como comunidad imaginada, es construida artificialmente por la élite política. Asimismo, la construcción de la historia, esencial por otra parte para la formación de la identidad nacional, experimenta un proceso análogo en el que la historia es manipulada para ofrecer una versión idónea del pasado de una nación. En este contexto, la novela de Julian Barnes England, England (1998) personifica el retrato satírico de la construcción artificial de "lo inglés", hiperbolizando el proyecto de modernización de New Labour.

This study looks into the subversive cultural production of British intellectuals against the government of Tony Blair. My dissertation explores how the writers, thinkers and cultural figures of the time who openly reacted against the government of Margaret Thatcher and her controversial cuts in public services, such as education and culture, gradually experienced disenchantment with the politics of the newly elected Labour leader. The messianic politician, popularly acclaimed by the masses in 1997, soon became the target of left-wing intellectuals who criticised his deconstruction of socialist values and the old principles of the Labour Party. The analysis of these socio-cultural changes takes place through the study of a corpus of textual and cultural constructs produced by the most significant intellectuals of the time, who publicly denounced Blair's government.