Culture Wars in British Literature
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The past century's culture wars that Britain has been consumed by, but that few North Americans seem aware of, have resulted in revised notions of Britishness and British literature. Yet literary anthologies remain anchored to an archaic Anglo-English interpretation of British literature. Conflicts have been played out over specific national vs. British identity (some residents prefer to describe themselves as being from Scotland, England, Wales, or Northern Ireland instead of Britain), in debates over immigration, race, ethnicity, class, and gender, and in arguments over British literature. These debates are strikingly detailed in such chapters as: ""The Difficulty Defining 'Black British',"" ""British Jewish Writers"" and ""Xenophobia and the Booker Prize."" Connections are also drawn between civil rights movements in the U.S. and UK. This generalist cultural study is a lively read and a fascinating glimpse into Britain's changing identity as reflected in 20th and 21st century British literature.
Tracy J. Prince, Ph.D. is a Scholar-in-Residence at Portland State University's Portland Center for Public Humanities (Oregon, USA). Born in Little Rock, Arkansas at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, she has spent her career teaching and writing about race, gender, and social equity issues. She has lived all over the world--having taught in or spent extensive research time in Turkey, Australia, England, South Africa, Canada, and throughout the US.