The Revision of Englishness

What is 'Englishness'? Who defines it? What impact have changes to England and the English, as well as England's relationship with the outside world, had on 'Englishness'? Has 'Englishness' become an anachronism at the turn of a new century?

These questions and others like them have become familiar ones in recent debates concerning English politics, culture and identity. Diverse and often competing notions of 'Englishness' have been critiqued by a variety of writers and critics who have become concerned about received visions of 'Englishness' in the post-war period. An exciting and provocative collection of essays which registers the changes to Englishness since the 1950s, 'The revisions of Englishness' explores how Englishness has been revised for a variety of aesthetic and political purposes and makes a ground-breaking contribution to the contemporary debates surrounding Englishness in literary and cultural studies.