National Identity, Popular Culture and Everyday Life

Description

The Millennium Dome, Braveheart and Rolls Royce cars. How do cultural icons reproduce and transform a sense of national identity? How does national identity vary across time and space, how is it contested, and what has been the impact of globalization upon national identity and culture? This book examines how national identity is represented, performed, spatialized and materialized through popular culture and in everyday life. National identity is revealed to be inherent in the things we often take for granted - from landscapes and eating habits, to tourism, cinema and music. Our specific experience of car ownership and motoring can enhance a sense of belonging, whilst Hollywood blockbusters and national exhibitions provide contexts for the ongoing, and often contested, process of national identity formation. These and a wealth of other cultural forms and practices are explored, with examples drawn from Scotland, the UK as a whole, India and Mauritius. This book addresses the considerable neglect of popular cultures in recent studies of nationalism and contributes to debates on the relationship between 'high' and 'low' culture.

Tim Edensor Lecturer in Cultural Studies,Staffordshire University

'This is a wide-ranging analysis of how popular culture and everyday life are significant components of national identity. Tim Edensor draws on a fascinating array of materials to explore the changing character of such identity. In short, this is an up-to-date, lively and innovative examination of contemporary'nations'.' John Urry, Lancaster University 'National Identity, Popular Culture and Everyday Life shimmers with incisive insight after insight. The book, quite simply is a tour de force of cultural analysis.' Cameron McCarthy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 'A timely intervention in the recent discussions of national identity.' Sociology 'Tim Edensor has managed to produce an imaginative examination of popular culture and national identity ... It is an essential read for undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as researchers in cultural studies, sociology and media studies. It will also be of interest to a more general readership interested in themes of national identity, popular culture and the nation.' Nations and Nationalism