Looking North: Northern England and the National Imagination

Front Cover
Manchester University Press, 2004 - History - 302 pages
Investigating areas as diverse as travel literature, fiction, dialect, the stage, radio, television, feature film, music and sport, this book assesses the portrayal of the North of England within the national culture and how this has impacted upon attitudes to the region and its place within notions of Englishness. The relationship between these cultural forms and the construction of regional identity has received only limited consideration and this fascinating work provides not only much new information, but also a map for future writers. The North, although seen ultimately as other and the subject of much critical comment, is also shown here as capable of stimulating the creative imagination and invigorating English culture in sometimes surprising ways.
 

Contents

Defining the North
14
Discovering the North
45
Writing the North
79
Speaking the North
111
Staging the North
147
Screening the North
177
Singing the North
208
Playing the North
236
The North in the national imagination
267
Index
293
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About the author (2004)

Dave Russell is Reader in The History of Popular Culture at the University of Central Lancashire.