'Is It Cos They Is Black?' British Society and Its Colonial ...

David Glowsky

• 05 februari 2004
• 9783638251143

Samenvatting:

British society has undergone a considerable change of its composition in the past fifty
years. Unprecedented numbers of immigrants came to Great Britain after World War II.
The traditional populatio n, which had been rather homogeneous until then, was confronted
with foreign-looking people who came from former colonies and whose identities seemed
anything but British. Since then, the proportion of non-white Britons of the population has
risen steadily. Their influx was increasingly made difficult, when the voices against such
immigrants grew stronger. The national self-image of a white British nation became more
and more problematic. At present British self-understanding is undergoing a shift away
from the traditional viewpoint to an awareness of changed circumstances.
In this setting the essay at hand will investigate signs of that shift in two British TV
series formats, namely 'The Kumars at No. 42' and 'Ali G'. It will show how remaining
tensions between the immigrant and the traditional population are being dealt with and
how new ways of coexistence are negotiated. The main focus will be an analysis of
strategies to break down old imperial structures and sublime ways to question British selfimages.
Both TV series have their own ways of turning the imperial tables and presenting
British society in a critical light.
The essay is divided into two parts. In the first section, an overview of British
immigration history since 1945, followed by a discussion of British national sentiment will
be given. The second section analyses the strategies of the two series against this backdrop.