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 years. Through the kit and boodle of Phyllis Wheatley, Aphra Ben, William Shakespeare, Daniel DeFoe, Coetzee and Caryl Phillips we father explored the different meanings and aspects of British identity. Britishness is not just confined to England (or the unite Kingdom in recent times), Britishness extends far beyond the nation. Britishness is not a simple concept and is complicated by the existence of many British colonies all over the world. The colonized stack of the British colonies also have packs on Britishness. So what determines if an individual is British or not? Is it ones faith? Is it the way one declaims? Is it just the difference of skin color? Is it ones way and dress? Is it found on citizenship? Is it ones knowledge of brotherly norms of England? The colonized people of British colonies defied many of those above. The Britishness of t hese 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 yet their claim on Britishness, them demanding their claim on British identity is as legitimate as any. So if not on these basic characteristics, that define national identity, on what is the Britishness of the colonized people based on?An important part of the formation of British identity inside the colonized people lies in their interaction with the British that came from England to colonize them. fundamental interaction with the British mainly depended on language and the colonized individuals ability to direct 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 culture and adopt the religion were all ways they c ould claim their Britishness. The strong influence of the British in their colonies was inevitable because if people stand firm together, there will be interaction and that will lead to the flip of ideas. This flip 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 whole recognized years later when the notion of racial superiority was fair obliterated.