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Titel
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From "Rule Britannia" to Brexit [EXAM]
This course examines whether the national consciousness of the British Empire can be used as a primary explanation for Brexit, an argument proposed by Gary Younge in the article “British Imperial fantasies have given us Brexit” published in The Guardian (2018), which students read in this course.
Initially, students are given basic information about the internal development of the British Isles and the politics of the UK. How, when,and why did the United Kingdom emerge? How is the UK governed, and what are some examples of national, regional, and single-issue political parties?
Next, we turn to the EU Referendum of 2016. After accounting for Brexit, students work with the specialized language surrounding the event, including relevant portmanteau words like Brexit, bregret, brexiety, and brexhaustion. In group projects students focus on a total of five explanations for Brexit emphasizing economy and the NHS, immigration, UKIP and populism, Euroscepticism, as well as historical colonial exceptionalism. We read Boris Johnson's 2016 speech on Brexit.
At this point, students gain an overview of the British Empire and the external development of the British Isles before being introduced to postcolonial criticism. Going back to “Rule Britannia” (1740) we see an example of the continued popularity of patriotic poems from the colonial period, and compare the motivations for colonialism and imperialistic views in “The White Man’s Burden” (1899). John Agard's poem is studied as an example of a postcolonial poem.
KERNESTOF
• Gary Younge: “Britain’s imperial fantasies have given us Brexit” in The Guardian, February 3rd 2018. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/03/imperial-fantasies-brexit-theresa-may
• James Johnson: “Rule Britannia” with music by Thomas Augustin Arne (1740)
• Rudyard Kipling: “The White Man’s Burden” (1899) from Wider Contexts (eds. Jonna Engberg-Pedersen, Mette Grønvold and Hanne Ohland-Andersen, Gyldendal 2013: 261-63)
• John Agard: "Therapeutic Exercise with the Union Jack"
• Boris Johnson’s Speech on the EU Referendum (May 9th, 2016)
SUPPLERENDE MATERIALE
• Skött, Jakob Sinding & Casper Sylvest: “Table 1.1. Facts about the United Kingdom” (9); “3.3 The External Perspective” (32 34); “Decline and New Questions of Identity” (38 41); “5.2 The Westminster Model” (55 56); “The Landscape of Political Parties” (65 69)69); “Text box 10.4: “Old” and “New” Commonwealth” ( 126); “Newspapers” (160, 162 63) in UK NOW: An Introduction to Modern Britain . Columbus, 2023
• Thaysen Anne Hess & Lise Debel Christensen: “Vocabulary: hidden words” (10); “Campaign slogans” (11); “Language” (25, 27); “Breixon vocabulary” ( in Divided Kingdom: Brexit and Beyond. Columbus, 2023
• “Anger over ‘Begret’ as Leave voters say they thought UK would stay in EU” by Lizzie Dearden, The Independent, June 25th 2016. URL: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-anger-bregret-leave-voters-protest-vote-thought-uk-stay-in-eu-remain-win-a7102516.html
• Jenkins, Jennifer: “The First Dispersal: English Is Transported to the ‘New World’” (38-39) and “The Second Dispersal: English is Transported to Asia and Africa” (76-77) in Leif Frederiksen’s English: Global Language – Global Anguish. Malling Beck, 2007
• The British Empire Quiz from The UK – From Island to Empire and Back (eds. Anne Mette Finderup and Agnete Fog, Systime, 2010: 30-31)
• Conductor David Robertson: “Rule Britannia” from Last Night at the Proms (2009), BBC Synphony Orchestra, Singers and Choir with soloist Sarah Connolly. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB5Nbp_gmgQ
• “The British Empire & the Commonwealth” by Marion Horner (2010)
• “Cruel Britannia” by Steve Bell, unknown publication
• BullionByPost: “Who is Britannia?.” URL: https://www.bullionbypost.co.uk/index/gold and silver/who is britannia/
• Alex von Tunzelmann: “The Imperial Myths Driving Brexit” in The Atlantic Aug 12th, 2019. URL: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/08/imperial-myths-behind-brexit/595813/
Group work with explanations for Brexit
• ”Why Vote Leave’s £350 million weekly EU cost claim is wrong” from The Guardian (2016)
• Ole Helmersen: “Figur 3.1 Godt/dårligt ved Storbritannien – ifølge briterne selv” from Broken Britain?. Columbus, 2013.
• ”Issues facing Britain: February” by Ipsos MORI
• “What are British people most proud of?” by Ipsos MORI
• “The health services makes more people proud to be British than our history, our culture, our system of democracy or the royal family” by The Health Foundation
• “Figure 7.2. Attitudes Among Leave and Remain Voters” from Lord Ashcroft: “How the United Kingdom voted on Thursday… and why” (June 24th 2016)
• VICE News: ”Why did England’s North vote to leave the European Union?” (link) c
• “Table 7.1 Voting Patterns in the 2016 EU Referendum” by YouGov
• “United Kingdom Independence Party” from Encyclopedia Britannica
• “UKIP Support: Groups most/least likely to vote UKIP” from YouGov
• “Breaking Point” ad by UKIP
• “Tekstboks 2.5: Donald Trump – nationalist og populist? Emotions of politics” from USA's udfordringer by Peter Brøndum and Annegrethe Felter Rasmussen, Columbus.
• “Britisk euroskepsis” From Ole Helmersen’s Brexit Britain: Great Britain eller Little England? pp. 38-41.
• “Lack of trust in the EU” from Eurobarometer
• “Trust but verify” from Economist.com
• “Half of Conservative and Leave voters are proud of the British Empire and think their countries are better off for having been colonized” from YouGov
• “Public pride in imperialism and colonialism” by YouGov
• “How Britain voted in the EU Referendum” by Gregor Aisch, Adam Pearce and Karl Russell. URL: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/06/24/world/europe/how-britain-voted-brexit-referendum.html
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