A Past Perfect Rather Than a Perfect Past: Julian Barnes’s Reflective Nostalgia in England, England

Études Britanniques Contemporaines

关键词: englishness;    nostalgia;    authenticity;    simulacrum;    capitalism;    consumerism;   

DOI  :  10.4000/ebc.2620

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

This article focuses on the concept of nostalgia, which appears as a key notion to understand the representation of English identity in Julian Barnes’s 1998 novel, England, England. I show that the text, rather paradoxically, feeds upon the contemporary nostalgic drive at the same time as it critically deconstructs nostalgic versions of Englishness which transform the past into a politically correct global commodity. While it denounces inauthentic constructions of English identity, which are complicit with the logic of consumerism and of the simulacrum (Jameson), the novel, in postmodernist fashion, invalidates the notion of authenticity, thereby putting into question the possibility of ever forging a ‘true’ national identity. The article ends with an examination of the vision of Englishness offered in the final section of the novel as a possible compromise resolving, at least partially, these paradoxes. It indeed seems that the author alerts his readers to the necessity of being aware of the inevitably constructed nature of any version of English identity, and to the attendant importance of choosing the values underlying these constructions. Barnes’s particular type of nostalgia is oriented towards the future in that it consists in exploring today’s constructions of English identity as a quest for the ideals that should act as guidelines for building the nation’s future.

【 授权许可】

Unknown