' English Literature ' as ideology ' English Literature ' as ideology

Abstract

Michael Gardiner [1] 17 December 2010 This essay traces the cultural embodiment of the British state in ‘English Literature’ in the period from 1790 to 1810, its uses and abuses, and the demise of this seminal metaphor for the ‘nationless nation’ which began in the 1970’s. The latter period saw a post-imperial unravelling of the culture of the unwritten British constitution, where the former had seen its settlement.