Open AccessRE-AFFIRMING ENGLISHNESS: ULTIMATE HALF-NESS AND (CRITICAL) MULTICULTURALISM IN BILLY BRAGG’S ENGLAND, HALF ENGLISH
Author(s) -
Lisda Liyanti
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
ideas/ideas: journal on english language and learning, linguistics and literature
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2548-4192
pISSN - 2338-4778
DOI - 10.24256/ideas.v7i1.723
Subject(s) - multiculturalism , identity (music) , national identity , new england , gender studies , immigration , cultural identity , northern ireland , sociology , genealogy , history , art , political science , law , aesthetics , ethnology , archaeology , social science , pedagogy , politics , negotiation
National identity in Great Britain is always interesting to discuss, as it dealt with England, Scotland, Walles, and Northern-Ireland identity, yet it is English identity that overshadowed British Identity. The problematic concept of English identity also brought up by Billy Bragg, a remarkable British musician, in his England, Half English-song in early 2000. This paper scrutinizes the question of “what does half English mean and what should be meant by full English?” using critical views on multiculturalism. The result shows that the basic idea of Bragg's works important in showing how the most changeable and essential signs of national culture and the clearer voices of its immigrant are perfect expressions of the "ultimate" Half-ness of England.