British Identity and Literature Essay -- European Literature Identity

British Identity and LiteratureWhat does it mean to be British? Britains national identity has evolved and transformed over the long time. Through the works of Phyllis Wheatley, Aphra Ben, William Shakespeare, Daniel DeFoe, Coetzee and Caryl Phillips we have explored the divergent meanings and aspects of British identity. Britishness is not just confined to England (or the United Kingdom in recent times), Britishness extends far beyond the nation. Britishness is not a simple invention and is complicated by the existence of umpteen British colonies all over the world. The colonized concourse of the British colonies also have claims on Britishness. So what determines if an individual is British or not? Is it unitarys religion? Is it the way one speaks? Is it just the difference of skin color? Is it ones appearance and dress? Is it ground on citizenship? Is it ones knowledge of social norms of England? The colonized people of British colonies defied many an(prenominal) of those above. The Britishness of these people did not just rely on their language, their appearance, their citizenship and at many times their understanding or application of social norms to their life unless their claim on Britishness, them demanding their claim on British identity is as legitimate as any. So if not on these basic characteristics, that do national identity, on what is the Britishness of the colonized people based on?An consequential part of the formation of British identity within the colonized people lies in their interaction with the British that came from England to colonize them. Interaction with the British in the first place depended on language and the colonized individuals capability to speak English. For most their ability to learn the language depends on their masters ge... ...w claim their British idenity, yet in the beginning of the colonizing process they had to prove their Britishness. Their ability to speak the language, understand the gloss and ado pt the religion were all ways they could claim their Britishness. The strong knead of the British in their colonies was inevitable because if people live together, there allow be interaction and that will manoeuvre to the exchange of ideas. This exchange of ideas lead to the development of a British identity among the colonized. This exchange wasnt one-sided as this interaction lead to the British discovering, understanding and sometimes adopting the ideas of the people in their colony. Yet the claim of the colonized on British identity was not considered legitimate in the colonial times and was only recognized years later when the notion of racial superiority was somewhat obliterated.