The Americans have 'American exceptionalism'. The French have 'l'exception française'. The Germans have 'der deutsche Sonderweg'. The English, on the other hand, have no equivalent catchphrase: it seems they take their exceptionality so much for granted that they don't even bother putting a name to it. Does such a thing as 'Englishness' really exist? Most current thinking on national identities suggests that it doesn't. Apparently innate and immutable national characteristics, the argument goes, are mere illusion and representation, a funhouse mirror which shows observers nothing but distorted images of their own desires, fears and preconceptions. To think of these characteristics as 'real' is to indulge in the deadliest of present-day academic sins, 'essentialism', patriarchal godfather to racism, sexism and all other noxious 'isms'.

LRB 14 December 2000 | PDF Download