Anglo-Saxonism and the Construction of Social Identity

Anglo-Saxonism and the Construction of Social Identity

Author: Allen J. Frantzen

Publisher:

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 9780813015323

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"Teaches us the extent to which the discipline of Anglo-Saxon studies is a construct motivated variously by political, economic, cultural, gender-based, and racialist impulses. Thus it also teaches us both humility before the limits upon our supposed 'disinterestedness' and optimism, if chastened, in our collegial ability to reform and improve our disciplinary investments."--R. Allen Shoaf, University of Florida Contributors to this volume explore Anglo-Saxonism as a set of beliefs and cultural practices that posits a unity among English-speakers based on their common racial, linguistic, and institutional descent from the people of Anglo-Saxon England. Value has often been set on such heritage, for Anglo-Saxonism asserts the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon people and sees their institutions as models of good government, commercial prosperity, and piety. In an examination of Anglo-Saxonism in a variety of forms and in several different periods of English and American literary history, the authors investigate how the Anglo-Saxons themselves thought about the origins of national and racial identity. By linking current theoretical studies to the early manifestations of Anglo-Saxonism, they seek to contribute to the "new medievalisms"--theoretically aware, institutionally focused, and interdisciplinary medieval studies--that are transforming the academy. CONTENTS: Introduction: Anglo-Saxonism and Medievalism, by Allen J. Frantzen and John D. Niles 1. Bede and Bawdy Bale: Gregory the Great, Angels, and the "Angli," by Allen J. Frantzen 2. Anglo-Saxonism in the Old English Laws, by Mary P. Richards 3. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Poems and the Making of the English Nation, by Janet Thormann 4. Received Wisdom: The Reception History of Alfred's Preface to the Pastoral Care, by Suzanne C. Hagedorn 5. Nineteenth-Century Scandinavia and the Birth of Anglo-Saxon Studies, by Robert E. Bjork 6. Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Anglo-Saxonism: The Question of Language, by J.R. Hall 7. Byrhtnoth in Dixie: The Emergence of Anglo-Saxon Studies in the Postbellum South, by Gregory A. VanHoosier-Carey 8. Historical Novels to Teach Anglo-Saxonism to Young Edwardians, by Velma Bourgeois Richmond 9. Appropriations: A Concept of Culture, by John D. Niles Allen J. Frantzen is professor of English at Loyola University, Chicago, and author of The Literature of Penance in Anglo-Saxon England (1983), King Alfred (1986), and Desire for Origins: New Language, Old English, and Teaching the Tradition (1990). John D. Niles is professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of Beowulf: The Poem and Its Tradition (1983) and co-editor of A Beowulf Handbook (1997).


War and the Cultural Construction of Identities in Britain

War and the Cultural Construction of Identities in Britain

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-12-28

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 9004490140

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The British have been involved in numerous wars since the Middle Ages. Many, if not all, of these wars have been re-constructed in historical accounts, in the media and in the arts, and have thus kept the nation's cultural memory of its wars alive. Wars have influenced the cultural construction and reconstruction not only of national identities in Britain; personal, communal, gender and ethnic identities have also been established, shaped, reinterpreted and questioned in times of war and through its representations. Coming from Literary, Film and Cultural Studies, History and Art History, the contributions in this multidisciplinary volume explore how different cultural communities in the British Isles have envisaged war and its significance for various aspects of identity-formation, from the Middle Ages through to the 20th century.


The Transatlantic Genealogy of American Anglo-Saxonism

The Transatlantic Genealogy of American Anglo-Saxonism

Author: Michael Modarelli

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-09-17

Total Pages: 365

ISBN-13: 0429785607

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This book traces the myth of Anglo-Saxonism as it crosses from Britain to the New World as both a cultural construct and ideological nation-building tool. Through extensive investigations of both early American and English cultural attitudes toward Anglo-Saxonism and similar texts, the book advances the claim that the ways in which Anglo-Saxon authors envisioned history as unfolding becomes an important ideological model for later New World conceptions of historical and national identity. From this beginning, the book follows the influence of this adopted American Anglo-Saxonism in early American literature and the socio-cultural implications that follow upon this influence.


The Making of English National Identity

The Making of English National Identity

Author: Krishan Kumar

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2003-03-13

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 9780521777360

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Why is English national identity so enigmatic and so elusive? Why, unlike the Scots, Welsh, Irish and most of continental Europe, do the English find it so difficult to say who they are? The Making of English National Identity, first published in 2003, is a fascinating exploration of Englishness and what it means to be English. Drawing on historical, sociological and literary theory, Krishan Kumar examines the rise of English nationalism and issues of race and ethnicity from earliest times to the present day. He argues that the long history of the English as an imperial people has, as with other imperial people like the Russians and the Austrians, developed a sense of missionary nationalism which in the interests of unity and empire has necessitated the repression of ordinary expressions of nationalism. Professor Kumar's lively and provocative approach challenges readers to reconsider their pre-conceptions about national identity and who the English really are.


The Idea of Anglo-Saxon England 1066-1901

The Idea of Anglo-Saxon England 1066-1901

Author: John D. Niles

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2015-07-29

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 1118943341

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The Idea of Anglo Saxon England, 1066-1901 presents the first systematic review of the ways in which Anglo-Saxon studies have evolved from their beginnings to the twentieth century Tells the story of how the idea of Anglo-Saxon England evolved from the Anglo-Saxons themselves to the Victorians, serving as a myth of origins for the English people, their language, and some of their most cherished institutions Combines original research with established scholarship to reveal how current conceptions of English identity might be very different if it were not for the discovery – and invention – of the Anglo-Saxon past Reveals how documents dating from the Anglo-Saxon era have greatly influenced modern attitudes toward nationhood, race, religious practice, and constitutional liberties Includes more than fifty images of manuscripts, early printed books, paintings, sculptures, and major historians of the era


National Identities in France

National Identities in France

Author: Brian Sudlow

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-09-08

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 1351503707

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National Identities in France explores nationalism, national identities, and the various ways in which these concepts are accepted, adapted, discarded, or internally disputed across ideological divides. The popular assumption that automatically regards nationalism as a largely right-wing concern, occludes the many ways in which nationalism and national identities have contributed to social imagination and political or literary discourses across the right-left spectrum. The critical grounds on which such reflections are undertaken are rich and varied. The idea of invented traditions has long suggested how such a thing as the modernnation-state could vest itself in the creatively assembled robes of a dim and distant past. In plotting the ground on which nationalisms are located, previous studies have shown, among other things, the uses and limitations of the distinction of ethnic and civic nationalism. Studies on national development reveal the imitative process that brought about nation building in former colonies of the Western powers. Each chapter asks important questions concerning nationalism and national identities in relation to France. With nationalism, apparently stable distinctions collapse under the pressure of French national identity. The signs are that French national identities and nationalisms are in a constant state of reinvention and negotiation, of periodic crisis and constant rebirth. If political classes attempt to manipulate national identity for some larger project, they have no monopoly on the social imaginary. National mobilization is a multiple and polysemic process, not a univocal and rigid ideology.


Immigration, Assimilation, and the Cultural Construction of American National Identity

Immigration, Assimilation, and the Cultural Construction of American National Identity

Author: Shannon Latkin Anderson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-11-19

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 1317328752

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Over the course of the 20th century, there have been three primary narratives of American national identity: the melting pot, Anglo-Protestantism, and cultural pluralism/multi-culturalism. This book offers a social and historical perspective on what shaped each of these imaginings, when each came to the fore, and which appear especially relevant early in the 21st century. These issues are addressed by looking at the United States and elite notions of the meaning of America across the 20th century, centering on the work of Horace Kallen, Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Samuel P. Huntington. Four structural areas are examined in each period: the economy, involvement in foreign affairs, social movements, and immigration. What emerges is a narrative arc whereby immigration plays a clear and crucial role in shaping cultural stories of national identity as written by elite scholars. These stories are represented in writings throughout all three periods, and in such work we see the intellectual development and specification of the dominant narratives, along with challenges to each. Important conclusions include a keen reminder that identities are often formed along borders both external and internal, that structure and culture operate dialectically, and that national identity is hardly a monolithic, static formation.


Myth and National Identity in Nineteenth-Century Britain

Myth and National Identity in Nineteenth-Century Britain

Author: Stephanie Barczewski

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2000-03-02

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 0191542733

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Scholars have become increasingly interested in how modern national consciousness comes into being through fictional narratives. Literature is of particular importance to this process, for it is responsible for tracing the nations evolution through glorious tales of its history. In nineteenth-century Britain, the legends of King Arthur and Robin Hood played an important role in construction of contemporary national identity. These two legends provide excellent windows through which to view British culture, because they provide very different perspectives. King Arthur and Robin Hood have traditionally been diametrically opposed in terms of their ideological orientation. The former is a king, a man at the pinnacle of the social and political hierarchy, whereas the latter is an outlaw, and is therefore completely outside conventional hierarchical structures. The fact that two such different figures could simultaneously function as British national heroes suggests that nineteenth-century British nationalism did not represent a single set of values and ideas, but rather that it was forced to assimilate a variety of competing points of view.