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Performing Englishness: Identity and politics in a contemporary folk resurgence

Online ISBN:
9781781708699
Print ISBN:
9780719097300
Publisher:
Manchester University Press
Book

Performing Englishness: Identity and politics in a contemporary folk resurgence

Trish Winter,
Trish Winter

Senior Lecturer in Film

University of Sunderland
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Simon Keegan-Phipps
Simon Keegan-Phipps

Lecturer in Ethnomusicology

University of Sheffield
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Published online:
21 January 2016
Published in print:
1 April 2015
Online ISBN:
9781781708699
Print ISBN:
9780719097300
Publisher:
Manchester University Press

Abstract

Performing Englishness looks in detail at the growth in popularity and profile of the English folk arts in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Based on original research within English folk culture, it is the only ethnographic study of its kind. By closely scrutinising various facets of this folk resurgence – discursive, musical and visual – the authors explore how it speaks to a broader explosion of interest in the subject of English national and cultural identity. How does contemporary English folk music and dance relate to ideas about England and Englishness? What kinds of English identities are expressed through the works of musicians like Seth Lakeman or Bellowhead? How does morris dancing contribute to ongoing political debates around multiculturalism, globalisation, and the devolution of the British nations? And how does the English folk scene reconcile a new-found commercial success with anti-capitalist roots? In their quest for answers to these and other questions, the authors combine the approaches of British cultural studies and ethnomusicology, drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, interviews with central figures of the resurgence and close analysis of key musical and dance texts. Their presentation of the English case contributes to debates about English identity and calls for a rethinking of concepts such as revival, indigeneity and tradition.

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