Seminar

: Constructing Britishness:

Fiction, Film, Press.

Vorgelegt von:

Birgit Lonnemann

Magister

Romanistik/Anglistik

06. Semester

Universität Osnabrück

Wintersemester 1998/99

2

Map 1: The British Isles1

1 Oakland, John.

British Civilization

. London: Routledge, 1995, page 14.

3

Table of Contents

I. Introduction

4

II. First and Early Settlement up to 1066 AD

5

III. Growth and Immigration up to the Twentieth
Century

11

IV. Immigration and Population Movements in the
Twentieth Century

14

V. Attitudes towards National Identities and Bri-tishness

..17

VI. Conclusion

20

VII. Bibliography

22

4

I. Introduction

"We call our islands by no less than six different names,

England, Britain, Great Britain, the British Isles, the

United Kingdom and, in very exalted moments, Albion."

2

This quotation taken from George Orwell′s essay

England, Your England

(1941) clearly shows that the names

quoted above are often used as synonyms, although they

patently are not. So it is no surprise that some people define

themselves as being "Englishsorrybritish" ­ a term which

occurred in the newspapers several times over the last few

months. A lot of people seem to be quite confused about their

identity, about who they are and where they belong. But using

the words "English" and "British" interchangeably is, in my

opinion, not very fair ­ especially with regard to the inhabitants

of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

In fact, the so-called United Kingdom of Great Britain

and Northern Ireland comprises four different indigenous

nations: English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish. And

considering the fact that the British Isles (cf. map 1, page 2) ­ of

which the United Kingdom3 is a part ­ have attracted settlers

and immigrants for several centuries, it is not surprising that the

contemporary British are a very diverse people, or ­ as is stated

in the title of my paper ­ people from worldwide origins. The

question arises whether the majority of people in the United

Kingdom consider themselves to be British or rather to be

English, Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish or part of any other

community often referred to as a so-called ethnic minority

group.

2 Orwell, George.

Selected Essays

. London: Penguin Books, 1957, page 72.

3 I will use the term United Kingdom throughout this paper to describe the United Kingdom of Great Britain and

Northern Ireland.

5

However, I will first outline the historical development

that led to the creation of a multicultural, multinational and

multiracial Britain.4 I divided this historical overview into three

parts: The first part will deal with the early settlement up to

1066 AD (cf. chapter II). As Britain′s last invasion from

overseas took place in 1066 AD, I thought it would be good to

make an incision there. In the second section I am going to talk

about immigration movements up to the twentieth century (cf.

chapter III) and later I will go on with immigration and

population movements in the twentieth century (cf. chapter IV).

As the multinational and multicultural characteristics of

contemporary British society raise questions about national

identities, on the one hand, and about the meaning of

Britishness, on the other, I will also talk about visions of and

attitudes toward these two notions (cf. chapter V). My thoughts

on Britishness and national identities will be followed by some

summarising final remarks on

"The British: People from

Worldwide Origins"

5 (cf. chapter VI).

II. First and Early Settlement up to 1066 AD

There is of course no distinctive information about what

the early settlement of Britain was like, but the oldest human

bones found were about 500,000 years in age. Old Stone Age

nomads from mainland Europe ­ the so-called Palaeolithic

people ­ who came to Britain when the country was joined to

the European land mass, are said to be the first settlers in

Britain. In contrast to the later settlers who were skilled in the

4 I will use the term Britain throughout my paper to describe the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern

Ireland.

5 Compare the paper′s title.