M. Gardiner – författare

This lively study provides an account of the 'fall and rise' of the English nation within the British discipline of English Literature between the late eighteenth century and the present day, offering a reconceptualisation of the relationship between English Literature and the formation of English cultural identity.

Some of the most incisive writers on the subject rethink the relationship between Britain, England and English literary culture. It is premised on the importance of devolution, the uncertainty of the British union, the place of English Literature within the union, and the need for England to become a self-determining literary nation.

In Britain, the resistance to popular determination allowed by the financial construct of the public has been so successful that this term, public, must be re-read as politically paralyzing. The problem, our problem, is the public - which we are so often told will bring us together and provide for us - and it is this we must move beyond.

This lively study provides an account of the 'fall and rise' of the English nation within the British discipline of English Literature between the late eighteenth century and the present day, offering a reconceptualisation of the relationship between English Literature and the formation of English cultural identity.