Next event: Thursday 11 March 2021, 17:00-18:30 (Microsoft Teams)
Title: ‘Brexit, National Identity & the Uses of History’
As the transition period ended and the United Kingdom broke its ties to the European Union, 2021 will be a crucial year in determining the UK’s place in the world. Brexit, of course, also affects personally many of the staff and students associated with our institute. While the media is often filled with news of prospective trade deals, lorry queues in Kent and political infighting, we want to take a step back and reflect on Brexit from a cultural perspective.
In these two articles, Robert Saunders and Paul Beaumont focus – from different points of views – on the role of the British Empire in the Brexit debate. How do notions of national identity affected the views of voters? How was history (mis)used in portraying Britain and Europe’s past, as well as their future? What does ‘Global Britain’ mean? In answering some of these questions, the authors engage with useful concepts in our field of study, such as ‘nostalgia’, ‘amnesia’, ‘decolonisation’ and ‘retrotopia.’
Robert Saunders, Brexit and Empire Global Britain and the Myth of Imperial Nostalgia, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (2020)
Paul Beaumont, Brexit Retrotopia and the perils of post colonial delusions, Global Affairs (2017), 3 (4-5), 379-390.
As always, we encourage our members to select their own readings as well and share those with us.
Link to University event: https://events.st-andrews.ac.uk/events/cultural-memory-reading-group-brexit-national-identity-the-uses-of-history/
UGs, PGTs, PGRs, and staff from all schools are welcome.
The event will take place on Teams. Please email [email protected] to let us know if you intend to come.