In addition,a large minority of thepeopl ein Wales probablydo not considerthemselvestobe especiallyWelshat all.In the nineteenthcentury large numbers ofScottish, Irishand English people
Trang 1Q uestions an dsug gestions 1
I B ear ing in mind it climat e and g enera l charac
-ter , which partof Britain wou ld yo u c hoos e to
li ve in? Wh y? I t hi s t h e s am e part t hat you
would like to visit fora holiday'Why(not)?
2 How i s the pattern of human s e ttlem ent in your
countrydifferen tf rom that i n Brit ain ?
3 Doesthecapitalcity of yourcount rystand in the
sa me relation to th e r es t o f the country as
London doe s LO B ritain?
4 The two big televi s ion new s organi za tions in
Britain, the BBC andlIN, bothhave 'Northof
England' corre spondents But nei ther has a
'South of Eng land'correspondent Why do you
t hin k t his is ? W hat i s it a n exa m ple o f?
5 I n th e sho rt 'tour' of the regionsofBritain in thi s c hapte r so me s ectio ns ar e l o nger t han othe rs T his i s partly b ecau s e some reg ions ha ve
'higherprofiles' than others- thatis,more is
known o r i m agi ned a bo ut the m than other s.
W hich arc t he r egi on s in B ritain th at seem t o
havethe higher profiles' What do theirrep
uta-t ion s co ns is t of?
• Spotlight on Britoinby Sheerin , SeathandWhite (Oxford University
P re ss) i s a book written for t he no n-native s tudent ofBritainu sing a
geographicalapproach
• I f you e njoy trave l writ ing t here ar e sev eral b ook s w hic h o ffer
ac countsofjourneysthrough o r around Britain T h e Kingdom by t heSea
b the respec tedno velist PaulTheroux(Penguin) isan example,
• Th ere a re m an y n ine teen th -cent ury E ng lish no vel s w hich in vo k e a
sense of place, The action inThomasHard y's novels,such asReturn
of the Native andTessof theD'Urberrilles,usuallytakesplace in theso uth
west ofEngland (mainlythe county ofDorset) , inan area wh ich
Hardy calledWessex Wuthering Heightsby Em ily Bronteh sthe
York-s hire mo ors a s it s s e ll ing More rece ntly, Graham S w ift's no v e l
Waterland (Picador),asitsttle suggests , takesaccoun tof theeffectof
the landscap e ofthefen s inEast Angliaon th actio ns ofth people
who live there,
Trang 24
Identity
How do Britishpeople identifythemselves'Whod theyfeelthey are?Everybod yhasan imageof themselves,but thethingsthat make
up this imag e can vary For example in so me parts o f the w orld , It i s
ve ry importan t that yo u are a member o f a particular fam ily ; in othe r
partsoftheworld,it might be moreimportantthatyoucome from
a par ticular p lace; in o th ers, that yo u belong to a certain social class.
Thischapterexploresthe loyaltiesandsensesof identitymost
typic-allyfeltby Britishpeople,
E th n ic i d entity : th e nati ve Briti sh
National ('ethnic' )loyalties can be strong amongthe people inBritain
whose ancestors were notEnglish (seechapter I),For som e people living inEng landwhocall them selves Scottish,WelshorIrish, this
l oyalty i s littl e m ore t h an a matt er of e m o tiona lauachme n t.B ut f or
others,itgoes ab furtherand theymay evenjoinoneof the sporting
and socia l club s fo r 'ex iles ' f rom th ese n ations These clubs pro mote
na tio nal fo lk m usic , org an ize part ies o n special nat i onal days and
fostera consciousnessofdoingthingsdifferentlyfrom the Eng lish, For peoplelivinginScotland,WalesandNorthernIreland, the way
t hat et hnic id ent ity com mon l y exp resse s itself varies People in Scot -land have co n stant r eminders of t hei r distin cti ven e ss First, several
important aspects of public lifeare organized separately, and differ
ently,from the rest of Britain- notably, education , law and religion Second,the Scotti shwayof speaking Englishisverydistin ctive,A modern form of thedialect known asScots(see chapter2)is spoken
ineveryday lifeby mostof thewor king classesin thelowl and s.It hasmanyfeatureswhich are different fromothe r forms of English andcannot usuallybe understood bypeopl e who arenot Scottish Third,thereare many sym bols of Scottishnesswhicharewell-known throughoutBritain(see chapter I),
However,thefeeling of being Scotti shisnotthatsimple(e-Wh at
docsi meantobeScottish' ), Thisispartlybecause of thehistor ical cultural
sp t between highland and lowland Scotland (see cha pter2) Agenu-inelyScottishGaelic sense of culturalidentityis,in modern times,
feltonlyby a fewtensof thousands of peoplein someof thewestern islesof Scotlandand the adjoin ingmainland.Thesepeople speak ScottishGaelic(which they call'Gallic') asa firstlanguage,
Trang 3110' Wha t d oe s it m e an to b e
Scottish ?
On 25 J an u ar y eve ry y ear, ma nr
Sc o ttish p eople a n end 'Bu rn s'
su ppers' At these pa r t ies th ey r ead
from th e w o rk o f th e ei ght eent h
ce nt ury p oet Ro ber t Burn s
(r egar ded a S co tla nd's na tio nal
poet) , wear k ilt s s ing t raditional
s o ngs dan ce tr aditional da nc es
(c alle d 'r eel s') and eat haggis (made
from s hee p's heart lu ngs and
l iver }
H er e are tw o o p pos ing views of
t h is way of ce le brat ing Sco u ish ness.
T h e n ative Briti sh 43
Theceremoniolcuttingof th haggisat a Bums'supper The s ent ime nta lnat io nali s t
That natio nal pride t hat ti es knot s in
y o ur stom ach w hen r o u s ee you r cou
n-t ry' s fla~ so me w here unex pe cted i s pa r
ucular lj - s tro ng among th e Sc o ts On
Burns' N ig h t pe ople all o ver t he w orld
figh t t heir wa y through haggi s and T am
o 'S ha ntc r! n ot really liki ng e ither.
They do it because t hey feel all egiance
t o a ma ll, we t under -p op ulat ed.
b ullied country s tuck o n th e dg e of
Eur op e.
M any Scottish S cots hate t he ro
man-tic, sentimenta l vie w of thei r c o unt ry;
the k ilt s the pipes , the hagg i s, Bonnie
Pri nce Charli e The sight of a man i n a
ski n or a Dunde e cakes mak es them
fu rious To t hem , hi s i s a t ou ri s t v iew
o f Sco tland i nvent ed by the E ng lish Bu t
I ad o re th e fierce rom ant ic, tartan s
en-timen tal Scot land The d our M cStalin
-ists are mi ssin t he point - and t h e f un.
I n t he e ighteenth centur y t h e Eng lish
practicall y e st ro yed H igh land Scot
-la nd The n o rm alizing of relati ons
betwe en the two c ountries w a
accompli shed by a novel ist Sir Walter
Scott wh ose s tor ies a nd lege nds
i ntrigued a nd excite d the English.
Und er his d irection , t he wh ole co u nt ry
re invented its elf E veryone ,vho co uld
get hold o f a bi t o f tanan w o r e k ilt ,
ancie nt c eremonies were invented I n a
f ew m o nt h s , a wa steland o f da ng erous
b eggarly savages b ecam e a na tion o f
nob le, brave, exotic wa rriors Scott did
the be st publi c relations job i n h i story.
T he realpol itik! Sco t d oesn 't see i lik e t ha t He on ly r elates to h eavy ind us
-t ry 1966 t rade un i o nism a nd a su p ·
po sed cl ass sys tem that p ut s Eng lishmen a t the t o of the h eap and Scott ish w or kers at t he bottom Hi s
h eart i s i n th e G orbals no t th e H igh
-la nds But 1 f eel moved by t he p ipes.
th e o ld s o n gs , the po em s, th e ro m antic
s to ries , and the t earful sent im ental nationa lism of it a ll.
A A Gill , The S unday Ti m es,
23 ja nuary 19 94 (ad apt ed)
I the t itle o f a poe m by B urn s a nd a lso
t he na me for t he t radition al ca p of
hi ghland dr ess
z a r ich fru it c ake, s upp ose d ly ongm
-at ing from t he t own of Dundee
3 a n ap proach to po lities based on r eal-itie s nd m aterial n e ds
Th e r ealist
Wh en 1 ass ur e E ngli s h a cq uaintance s tha t I woul d rath er s ing a c horus o f
La nd o f Hope a nd G lory! th an attend a
B urn s' su pper, t he ir eyeb rows r ise
Wh o cou ld po ssibl y o bject t o suc h afun
ni gh t o ut ?
I n fact o nly a f cv Scots are p repared
to s uffer t he b or ed o m of these occa
-s ions The p eo ple wh o a rc rea lly ke en
o n t h em aren 't Sco ttish a t all Th e y t hink
t hey ar e e speciall y o n 25 Jan uar y or
S ai nt A nd rew's Da y or a t nte rnational
ma tch es at Mur rayfield - whe n t hey al l mak e a great bu s iness o f wea ring k ilts.
d ancing r eel s, reciting t h e ir Tam o'S han ter s and tr ying to s ar ' loc h '3 properl y with out coughing u
p hlegm B ut thes e p seudo - Scot s ha v e
En glish a ccent s because th ey w e nt to
p osh pub li c schools Th e} ' are Scottish
o nly in t he sens e that t heir fa mi lies
ha ve, f o r gener atio ns, o w ned l arge part s of S cotl and - while liv ing i n
L o nd o Thi s usc o f Scontsh symbols b y
p seud o - Sc o t s ma ke s it vc r y awkward for the rest of us Scots It mean s that w e
c an 't b e s ur e which bits o f o ur h eritage are pure Tartan ? D un no- Ga y
G ordo n s " Don 't c are Whi sky ? N o
w ay t hat 's o urs Kilt s worn wit h f rilly
s hirts? P se udo - Scotti sh Lio ns ra m pant ? Ours, a s an H amp d e ne c rowd will prove And Burns' supper s? The F
ar-q uhar - S ea to n- Bethun e - Bu ccieuc hs 7
c an kee p t he m A nd I h op e they a ll chok e on t heir h aggis.
H arr y Ritchi e T he S unday T im es.
23 january 1 9 94 ( ad a pted)
I a pat riot ic Brit i sh song w hi ch refers (Q t h e ' reb e llious Scots'
2 the Scottis h n ationa l ru gby sta d ium
3 ' loch' i s Gaeli c f or 'la ke'
-4 i.e ' I don't kn o w'
S t he name o f a pa rtic ular re el
6 th e Scott ish nat ional f oo tball
st adium
7 r> What'5 ina namt?
Trang 444 4 Identit y
Asign in Welshand English
Thepeople of Walesd not haveasmanyreminders of their Welshnessin everydaylife Theorganizationof public lifeis sim ilar
tothat in England Nor are there asmanywell-kn own symbo lsof
Welshness In addition,a large minority of thepeopl ein Wales probablydo not considerthemselvestobe especiallyWelshat all.In the nineteenthcentury large numbers ofScottish, Irishand English people wentto find workthere, and todaymanyEnglishpeople still
make the ir homes in Wales or have holida y hou ses ther e As a r esult,
afeeling ofloyaltyto Wales is often similar in naturetothe fairly weak loyaltiestoparticular geographicalareasfound throug hout
England(see below) - it is regionalrather thannationa listic
However, there is one single highly-imporlantsymbolof Welsh
iden tity - the Welshlanguage Everybod yinWales canspeak English, but it isnot everybod y'sfirstlanguage Forabou t20 % of thepop ula-tion (that'smore than half a million people), the moth er- tong ueis
Welsh.For thesepeopl eWelshidentity obviously meansmor ethan
ju st living in the r egion kn o wn a s W ales Mo reove r in c omparison
to th e other s mall min orit y lang uagesof Europe W elsh s hows sig ns
o fcontinued V itality Thank s to s ucc essive cam paigns, th e lan guage
receivesa lot of public support.AllchildreninWales learnit atschool
th ere are man y lo cal n ewspapers in W elsh th ere is a W elsh te lev isio n
c hannel a nd nearl y a ll pub lic notice s and s igns are written in both
Welshand English
M eibi on G lynd w r
Mostof t h eWelsh-speaking We lsh fee l a certain ho stilitywthe Englishcultura linvas ion of their country Usually this feeling is not
p ersonal But sometimes it can be , and there are extremist g roups who use violenc e to achieve thei r aims.
This newspaper article desc ribes the actions of one such group.
Tr o ubl e at L1 langybi
Ev ery morning , R ay a nd J anSu no n
check t heir m ail a nd car for bo m bs.
T argetedla st w eek b y a rson ists, t he
defian tEnglis h couple arcdeaf tothe abuse hu rled f rom passing veh icles
at their villa ge shop.
T he Suttons a re ho lding out agai nst a nu ltima tumto leave Wa les
by S t Da vid's da y next yea r or be
bur nt o uto f t he v illage s tore t hey have r u n f or seve n ye ars a t U langybi.
The y ar e on a h it li st i ssued b y t he
my ster ious group M eibi o n
G lyndw r, Of Sonsof Gl e n ow er I
O ver the p ast th irteen ye ars the Sons
of G le n owe rha ve le ft a fiery t ra il of dest ructio n a cro ss n orth a nd west Wales , cla im i ng res ponsibility fo r attacks o n En g li sh holiday homes, estate agents, boatyards and shops
Last year, Ray Su lton refused to
put up a poster in Welsh The shop's policy for the pasttwenty -sixyears had been to accept only bilingual posters, he said The warning l etter
he received read 'You are an English
co lonist you are racis t and ami -Welsh You a rc on Meibion
Gl yndwr 'sblacklis t You mus t leave Wales by t he fi rstof M arc h 1 9 9 3.'
J ulianCayo-Eva ns a l o ca l b usi -nessma n an df or m er' suprem e comma ndant' o f the Free W ales Arm y, d enied h av ing li ksw i tht he
te rrorist gro up but s aid T hey hav e
a po int Y ou ng Wels h pe op le a re for ced to emigrate wh ereas these crooks fromB irminghambuy
second h o m es and live in them for three weeks of the year."
Stuart Wavell Th eSunday Times, 1~No vember 1992
I OwenG lcndowerfought against the English in medieval times.
Trang 5The question of i denti ty in Norther n I reland is a much m o re
complexissue and is dealt with at th e end ofth is ch apte r
As for English identity,mostpeoplewho describethemselvesas
English usually make no disti nction in t heir m inds b etw een ' Englis h '
and'British ' There is plenty of evidence ofth is For example ,at
internationalfootballor rugby match es , whe ntheplayersstandto
attent ion to hear t heir na tional a nthem s, th e Sco ttish, I r i sh an d Wels h
have the ir o w n son gs, w hile t he En gli sh o ne i s j u s t 'Go d S ave the
Q ueen ' - t he sa me as th e Br iti sh nat i onal a nthem
Et hnic identi ty: the non - na tive Bri ti s h
T he long ce nturies o f co ntact b etw een t he p eop l es of the f our na tio ns
of th e B ritish I sles m eans th at th ere i s alimittoth eir s ignifican t
differences.With minorvariatio ns ,theylo o k thesam e ,spe ak th e
same language , eat the same foo d , have th e same r eligi ou s her itage
(Christian ity) and have the sameattitudes totherolesofmen and
women.
The situation for the several millio n peoplein Bri tain whose family
roo ts li e in t he Caribbean o r in so uth Asia o r lsewhere in t he wo rld
is d ifferent For t hem e thnic id ent ity is m ore th an a q ue st i on o f
decid ing whichsports team tosu p port,Non-wh ites (about6% of
the to talBritish popu lation ) canno t , as white non-English grou ps
ca n, c hoosewhen to a dvert is e the ir ethnic id ent it y a nd when n ot to
M ost no n -whi te s, alt hough t hem se l ve s bor n in Brit a in , h ave
paren t s w ho we re born o u t s id e i t The g rea t w ave ofimmigrali on
fromtheCaribbean andso uth Asiatookplacebetween '950 and
19 65.Theseimmigr an ts , especially thosefromsou thAsia, brough t
with themdifferemlan guages,differentreligions (Hin d uand
M uslim) and everyday ha bits a nd atti tudes th at we re s o metimes
radically diffe rentfrom trad itional British ones Asthey usually
married among themselves, t hese h abits and customs have, to some
ex tent, been preserved For some yo ung people b rough t u in B ritain,
t his m ixedculluralbac kground can c reate p roblems Fo r examp le,
many young Asia ns r esen t t he f act t hat t he ir par en ts e xpec t t o have
more co ntrol ove r t hem t han mo st bla ck o r w hite par e nt s xpect t o
hav e over th eir c hildren Nev ertheless , t hey c anno t a o id th ese
exp erien ces, whi c h th e efore make u p part o f h e ir ide nti t y.
A s well a s t h is 'g iven ' d e nt ity, no n -w hit e people in B ritain oft e n
l a ke pride i n t h e ir c ul tu r a l r o o ts Thi s p rid e s ee ms t o be increa sing a s
theircultural practices,theireveryd ay habitsandattitu des,gradually
become lessdistin ct ive,Mo st of the country'sno n- w h itesare British
citizens Partlybecause of this,theyare onthe waytodevelopin g the
samekin dof divisio n ofloyalties and iden tit y that exists fo r many
Irish , Scottish andWelsh people Pride canincrease asa defen sive
reaction t o racial discriminatio n Th ere is qui te a l ot o f his in B ritain.
There are tens of thousands of r acially mo tivated atta cks on people
every year , including one or tw o m urders All in a ll, h ow ever, overt
racism is n ot as common a s i t i s in man y o ther pa rtsofEurope
The non-nat ive Brit ish 45"
Trang 646 4Identity
Childr en born outs ide marriag e
in Britain
% of all births
3 30 25 20
1
1 _
-5
/ 9 /.9 / ,9 /.9 / 9
• all births outs ide marriage
• birth registered by both parents
• b irth r egistered by mot her onl y
So urce: K ey Data
Family size
The famil y
Incomparisonwithmost otherplaces in the world family identity
is ratherweak in Britain.espe ciallyin England Of course.the family
u ni t isstill th ba sic li vi n garrangeme ntfor mos t peop le B ut in B ritain
this defin itelymeansth nuclear famil y.Th re islittle senseof
ex tended fa m ily i de ntity except a mong someracial mino rities This
i s r eflec t ed in the size a ndcompositionof households It is unusual
for adultsofdifferent generations withinthe family to live together The average number of peopleliving in each household in Britain is
elderly people living aloneis similarly high(e-Family size)
Significant famil y events such as weddings births and funeralsare
notautomatically accompaniedby large gatheringsof people.It is
s ill c ommon t o ap po int p eop l e t o ce rtain r oles on s uch occ asio ns,
su c h a s 'b es t m an' at a w edd ing , or go dmother and go dfathe r when
a chil d is b o rn But f o r most p eople these ap pointmen ts areof sen ti-mentalsignificance only They do not imply lifelong responsibility
Infact.familygatheringsof any kind beyond the household unit are rare For mostpeople they are confinedtothe Christmas period Even the stereotyped nuclear family of father mother and children
chil-dr en b o rn ou tsi de m arriage h as ri sen dra matically and is a lso o ne o f
the highest(abou tath irdofallbirths) (r-Children born outside marriagein
Britain).However these trends do not necessarily mean thatthe nuclear family isdisappearin g.Divor ces have increased butthe majority of marriages in Britain(about 55%) do not break down In
additio n it is notable that about three-quarters of all births outside marriage are officiallyregistered by both parents and more than half
oft he ch ildren conce rned are bo rn to parents who arc living together
at the time
Average number of persons per household
2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
S pain
Ir eland Portug al Gree ce
I taly
L uxembourg
Fr ance
N etherlands Britain
Source: E uropeinF igures
People over the age of 6S l iving alone
G e rman y
D enmark Nethe rlands Britain
Ir eland
F rance
Italy
Portu gal Spain
Gr eece
Lu xembourg
Trang 7Geographical iden tity
Asense of identitybasedon place of birth is,like familyidentity,not
ve ry common or s tron g in most part s of Britain - and p erhaps for
thesame reason Peopleare just too mobile and veryfew live in the
same place all their lives.There isqu itealot oflocalpride,andpeople
find many opportunitie s to exp ress it Thi s p ride , h ow ever, ari ses
because people arehappy tolive in what they consider to be a nice
placeand often when they are fighting to preser veit Itdoesnot
usuallymean that thepeople ofa localityfeel stro nglythat they belong
tothat place
A senseof identity with a larger geographicalareais a bitstro nge r
Nearly everybody hasa spo ken accent thatidenti fiesthem as coming
stro ngsense of identification.Liverpudlians (from Liverp ool) , Ma
n-cunians (from Manchester), Geor dies (fromthe Newcastlearea) and
Cockneys(from London) are often proudto be known bythese
names(c-What isa Cockney?).In other cases,identity is associatedwith
acounty These arethemostancient divisionsof Eng land.Although
arrangementoflocalgovern ment(see chapter6),they still claim
theallegiance of some people Yorkshire ,inthenorth ofEngland ,is
a notab le ex ample A no ther i s Cornwall , in t he so u t h- w est c o rner o f
England Even today, some Cornishpeople still talkabou t'going to
England'when they cross thecounty border-a testame nttoisethn ic
Celtic histor y
Many English people seethem selvesas eithe r'no rtherne rs 'or
'southe rne rs' The fact that thesou th is onthewhole richerthanthe
north,andthedom ination ofthe media by the affairs ofLond on
and thesouth-east,leadsto resentment in thenorth Thisrein forc s
the prideintheir northern rootsfelt by many northerners,who,
stereo typically,s ee themse lves a stougher,more hones t a nd warm
er-hearted than thesoft,hypocriticaland unfriendlysoutherners.To
peoplein the south ,the stereotypicalnortherner(who isusually
male) isratherignor ant andunculture dand interestedonlyinsport
and beer-drin king
Regional identityisoften feltstronly at sportingeventssuch as football match"
G eog raphi cal i dentit y 4 What is a Cockn ey ?
T raditi o nally a true Coc kney is
a nybody born w ithin the s o und of Bow be lls ( the bell s of the chu rch of StMary-le - Bowint heEaS I En d of
Lo ndon) I nf act.the te rm is com
-m only use d 10 de not e p eopl e who come f rom a w ider ar eao f t hei nner
-m os teast ern su burbso f L ondona nd also an adj oining ar ea so uthof t he
Thames ' Co ckn ey' i s al so us ed to d escribe
a strong Lo ndon acc ent and, like any
s uch l ocal acce nt, i s associ ated w ith
w orking - class o rigins.
Afeat ureof Coc kney speec h i s
r hym ing sla ng , in w hich, f o r exam ple, 'wife' is re ferred to a s ' troub le a nds trife",and's tairs'as ' apples and pear s' (usuall y
sho rtenedto ' apple s' ) Some
r hyming s lang ha s p assed into general i nformal Britishusage ;
so me exa mp les are ' use your lo af', which m eans' thi nk '( from ' loaf
o f bread' ='h ead') a nd 'have
a butche r's', whi ch m eans 'have a look ' ( fro m 'but cher's hook' = 'lo ok' )
Trang 848 4Identity
~What's in a name?
I n E n gland , the no tion of the hon our
of the family name is almost non -existen t (though it exis ts to some degree in the upper classes, i n the
o ther t h ree Br itish nations and
a mong e thnic m inorities) In fact it
is very easy to change your fam ily
name - and you can choose any name you like In the [9 805 on e
person changed his surnam e to Oddsocks McWcirdo El T utt i Frulti Hello H ip po po tam us Bum.
Ther e arc 110 la ws i n Bri tain a bo ut
w hat surname a wife or c hild mus t
have Because o f th is freedom, names can be use ful p ointers t o social t rends The case of do uble-barrelled names i s an e xam p le
These are surna mes w ith tw o p ans
sepa rated by a hyphen; f o r ex am ple,
Barclay -Finch For centuries t hey
have bee n a symbol o f up per-class
status (origina ting in the d esire t o preserve an aristocr atic na me w hen there was no ma le heir) U n ul recently, most peopl e i n B rit ain h a ve avo ided givi ng th emselves d o u ble
-barrelled names - they w o uld h ave
been laughed at for the i r p ret en -sions I n 1962, on ly o ne in eve ry
300 surnames was double -ba rrelled.
By 1992, howev er, o ne p erso n in
fi fty had such a name W h y the change? One re ason i s fem inism
Although an increasing n um ber o f
women n o w keep their m aiden
name when they marry, it is still nonual to take t he husban d 's name.
In d epend ent -mi nded w o me n are
no w finding a compromise by doing both at the same ti me - and then
p assin g th is new doub le- barre lled
n am e onto t heir ch i ldren Anothe r
motive is the des ire of paren ts from
d ifferent cultural a nd r acial back-grounds for their chil dren to ha ve a sense of bot h of th eir he ritage s
T he same l ac k f igid tr ad ition
applies with rega rd to th e fi rst
na mes t hat can be gi ven to children.
This is usua lly si m ply a ma tter of tas te M or eo ver, the conce pt o f
celebrat ing name -days is Virtua lly
unknown.
Histor ianssay that the class system has survived in Brita inbecauseof
itsflexibility Ithas alwaysbeenpossibleto b yor marryoreven
workyour way up, so that y urchildren(and theirch ildren )belong
to a highersocial class thanyo u do Asa result, the classsystem has
n ver been sw ept awayby a revolution and an awareness ofclass
formsa majorpart ofmostpeople's sense ofidentity
Peopleinmodern Britain arevery con sciou s of classdiffer ences
They regard it asdifficult tob co me friends with some bo dy froma
differe nt class Thisfeeltnghaslittletodo with consciousloyalt y,and nothing todo witha positiveb liefin th class system itself.Most peoplesaythey dono t approve of classdivision s Nor doe sithave very muchto do withpoliticalor religiousaffiliations.Itresults fro m
thefactthatth different classeshave differentsetsofattitudesand
dailyhabits Typically,theytendtoeatdifferen tfoodat different
tim es ofday (and call the mealsb differentnames- see chap ter20 ) ,
they liketotalk abou t different topicsusingdifferentstylesand accentsofEng lisIi,they enjoydifferent pastimesandsports(see
chapter 2 I),they havedifferent valuesaboutwhat thingsin lifeare most mporta ntand different ideasabou t th correctwaytobehave Stereotypically, tlieygoto different kindsofsch ool(seechapt er 14).
An interestin g feature ofthe classstructurein Britain isthat it is
notjust,oreven mainly,relativewealth or the appearanceofit which determ inesS0111eOne'sclass.Of course,wealthispart ofi - if you becomewealthy, youcanprovidetheconditionsto enable your
childre n tobelon gtoa higherclassthan yo u do.Butitisnotalwa ys
possible to guessreliablyth classto which a per sonbelongsby
loo kin g at his orher clothes,car or bank balance.Themostobvious
andimme diatesigncomeswhe naperso nope nshisorher mouth, giving thelistener cluesto the speaker'sattitudesandinterests,bo th
of whichareindicative ofclass
But even more indica tivethan what the spe akersays isthe~YQY that
he or shesaysit The Eng lishgrammarandvocabularywhichisused
inpublicspeaking, radio andtelevisionnewsbroadcasts,booksand
new spapers (andalso- unlessthelessonsarerunby Ame ricans- as
a modelfor learne rsofEnglishasa foreign language) isknown as 'standar d Brit ish En glish ' Most working-classpeople,however, use
lots of words and grammaticalforms in their everyday spe ech which are regarded as 'non-standard'
Nevertheless, nearlyeverybo dyin the count ry is capableofusing
standardEn glish (or something very closetoit) when theyjudge that the situation dema ndsit.They aretaughtto do soatschool
The re fore, the clearest indication of a person 'sclassisoften hisor
her accent Mostpeople cannotchangethisconvincinglyto suitthe
situation The mostprestigiou s accen tin Britain isknownas 'Receive dPronunciation' (RP).Itis the combinationofstandard
Eng lishspoken with an RPaccentthat isusuallymeant whe n people
Trang 9Scene: Nighthasjustfa llen T heex-queenand herhusband arrive with a driverin a
furniturevan(with alltheir belongings init),r eady tomoveinto thehousewhich they
have been allotted Theirnewneighbours, T ony andB everl yThreadgold,a restandingat
the front doorof theirhouse
The Threadgolds watched as a shadowy figure ordered a tallmanoutof
th e van Was she a foreigner?It wasn'tEn glish she wastalkin gwasit ?
But as their ears becamemo re accustome dthey realizeditwas Eng lish,
but posh Eng lish,really posh
'Tone,why theymoveda pasha inHellClose?'asked Beverly
'Dunno 'repli ed Tony,peering intothe glo om, 'Christ,[ustour
bleedtn" luck to have pashasnex' door.'2
A few minut eslater , theQueenaddressed them 'Excuse me, but
would you have an axeIcouldborrow?'
'Anix?" repeatedTon y
'Yes,an axe.' The Queen came to theirfrontgate
'Anix?"puzzled Beverly
'Yes.'
'I dunno what an" ix"is,'To ny said
'You don'tknow what an axe is?'
'No.'
'O ne uses itfor choppingwood.' TheQueen was growingimp atient
Shehad made a simple req uest; herTIe\\, neighbou rs wereobviously
morons.She wasawarethat educationalstandardshad fallen, butno t to
knowwhat anaxe was ,.It was a scandal
'I need an implementof some kindto gain access tomyhou se.'
'Arse?'
'House!'
The drivervolunteeredhisservicesastranslator.His hours talking to
the Queenon the motorw ay had given him con fidence
'Thisladywantsto knowif you'vegot anaxe.'
Just[hen , theQueen came down the garden pathtowards the
Threadgoldsand the lightfromtheirhall illuminatedher face.Beverly
gasped.Tony clutched th efront -d oorfam e for supportbefore saying,
'It's outthe back, I' gedd it.'
Left alone, Beverlyburst into tears
'I mean,who wouldbelieveit?' shesaidlater,as sheand Tonylayin
bed unable(Qsleep 'I stilldon'tbelieve it, Tone.'
'Nord 1, Bcv.I mean, theQueennext door We'llput infor a
transfer,eh?'3
Slightlycomforted ,Beverlyw en t (Qsleep
From TheQueenand I by Sue Townsend
1 a fairly strong swear \ ord
2 I.c he is automatically unhappy about somebody fro m a different class moving in
next door
3 t.c they will ask the local council to move them to another ho use
Poshos
The extract on the left illustrates how people from different classes do not like to mix and how language is an important aspect of class It is taken from a fantasy novel in which a republican government is elected in Britain and the royal family are sent
to live on a working-class housing estate, in a road known to its inhabit -ants as 'Hell Close'.
Trang 10~o 4Identity
~Th e thr e e cla ss es
A stereotyped viewof theupper.
middle and working classes (left LO right) as seen in a satirical televisio n programme Fmst om England in
1967 This view is now quite a long
wayfrom thereality but stil l lives
011 in people's minds.
Astereotyped repre sentation of the t hree
cla sses
RP i s not a ssociated with an y particular pan o f th e cou ntry Th e
v ast maj ority of p eop l e h o w e v er s peak with an a ccent w hich i s
wit h a s trong r egi onal a ccent i s aut omat ically assu me d to b e w orking class Co nversely, an yon e wit h an RP a ccent i s assu med to be u pper
orupper -middleclass (InSco tlandan dNorthern Irelan d, thesitu
a ccent a re alm o st as p restigious a s RP )
people wish to ide nt ifyth ems elvessee mstohave change d In Britain ,
a s an ywh ere else w here th ere ar e r ecog nized social cl asses , a ce rtain
amoun t of 's oc ial climbing 'goes on; thatis, peopl etry to appearasif
theybelon gto as hig h a classa possible.These days, however,
nobodywantsto bethought ofas sn o b bish Th e word'posh' ill
u sed wit h neg a ti ve conno tations To a ccuse so meoneofbeing po sh
is t o acc u se them of being pr etentio u s.
belo ng ing toany o ther class Interestingly, a s urveyco d ucted in the
early 19905showed thatthe propo rtionofpeoplewhodescribe
themselvesas wor king class is a ctually g reater t han the p ropo rtion
w hom so cio log ists wo uld class ify a s s u ch ! Thi s i s o ne ma nif es tation
of a p henome no n known as ' inverted snobb ery', w h ereby mid dle
-classpeopletrytoadoptworking-class values andhabits.Theyd
in Br itain ha s b ecome l ess r igid than it was A p erson wh o se a ccen t
mosthigh-statu sjobsforthat reasonalone Nobo dy takes elocution
lesso ns a ny m ore in o rder to s ou nd mor e upp er cl ass It i s n ow accep table f o r r adio a nd televi sion p re senters to s peak w ith' a n
accent' (i.e nottouse str ict RP) It isalsonot ablethat,at the time of
w riting o nly o ne o f th e la st s ix Briti sh Prim e Mini sters w ent t o an
Prim e Mini ster in h istory did
In g eneral, t he diff erent cla sses mi x more readily and easily w ith
numb er of p eopl e f rom w orking-cl ass ori gins who are h o useowners
(see ch apter 19) an d whodo traditionally middle-classjobs (see
o ther in t h e ir a ttitudes.