Englishness and Identity
What does it mean to be English? One of the guests on the Radio 4 programme, Music Group, chose 'Roots' by Show of Hands, whom we are going to see tomorrow night. It laments our lack of English roots.
This set me wondering what it is that makes someone English. The Scots wear tartan and eat haggis, amongst other things, the Welsh have a penchant for leeks and the Irish believe in lucky leprachauns, especially after a few pints of Guiness, but what identifies the English man or woman as typically English? What makes you feel English if you are English?
Sometimes I feel out of step with Englishness or perhaps it's aspects of 'Surrey-ness', which can leave me wondering who I really am. I identify with Billy Bragg's notion of 'English, Half English', although I think his lack of Englishness lies with his grandparents not one of his parents. Perhaps that's why I enjoy folk music and take an interest in my family tree.
4 comments:
Being English, we Fight Dragons like St George.
Have you come acrosss the Imagined Village project? [ http://www.imaginedvillage.com/ ] CD (out now I think) and tour which is a major attempt to 'reimagine' England and Englishness by many of our best 'folk' artists, including Billy Bragg, Martin Carthy, Eliza Carthy, Sheila Chandra, Benjamin Zephaniah and John Copper to name a few.
Thanks John, I just heard it being discussed on the radio last night. It sounds interesting, although as a rule I'm not a great fan of either Martin or Eliza Carthy. Certainly something I'll consider buying. They played John Barleycorn on R4 and I thought it sounded quite good.
Tea - when in doubt, make a cup of tea. You can't get much more English than that!
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