Regional and National Identity

What is Britishness?

Understanding regional identity• Pick 3 of the following regions and stereotype

their regional identity:– Northerners– Southerners– Essex– Scottish– Welsh– Scousers– Geordies– Yorkshire– Mancs– Brummies– Londoners

Northerners

• Stereotype= ‘Northern Monkeys’, Loud rude, drink a lot and of a lower status

• Costume= Track suit or cheap/casual clothes

• Dialogue/dialect= Vowel sounds over-pronounced

• Make up= Over the top or minimal

• Class/Status= Low

Southerners

• Stereotype= ‘Poncy Southerners’ arrogant and posh

• - Dialogue/dialect= Well spoken ‘ the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain’

• -Costume= Suit and tie, tailored clothing and dresses

• -Props= Brief case

• -Make up= Classy and to a minimum

• -Class/Status= Middle/Upper

Essex• Stereotype= Image conscious,

unintelligent, love to shop and party

• Stereotype coined by TOWIE (The Only Way is Essex)

• Dialogue/dialect= 'Shut up' 'Oh my God' = common phrases

• Costume: Girls= Revealing/OTT Boys: Fashionable

• Location= Clubs and boutiques• Props: G Expensive, flashy, tacky

handbags, up to date mobile phone

• Make up= Fake tan, fake eyelashes and hair extensions

• Class/Status= Lower Middlehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vTzuZk1OHA

Scottish• Stereotype= Humourless, hate

other nations,alcoholic and violent• Dialogue/dialect= Strong accent

'och' 'wee'• Costume= Kilt, tartan, Tam o'

Shanter• Location= Highlands, cold and vast

open spaces• Props= Bagpipes, haggis, whisky• Make up= Ginger hair and freckles• Class/Status= Lower class (farmers)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp-jVwBGUsI

Welsh• Stereotype= Small ,dark

haired people who play all rugby, sing in choirs, herd sheep or mine coal

• Dialogue/dialect= Very ‘song-like’ and melodic, slow and exaggerated pronunciation

• Costume= Rugby shirts• Location= Rugby pitch, church,

pub, fields with sheep• Props= Sheep• Make up= Minimal• Class/Status= Middle/Lower

Scousers• Stereotype= Dangerous ;

‘Why does the river Mersey run through Liverpool? If it walked it would get mugged’

• - Dialogue/dialect= Flemmy, difficult to understand; 'like' prominent k's

• -Costume= Tracksuits, very casual cheap looking clothing

• -Location= Pub/home• -Props= Cheap looking

jewellery• -Make up= Minimal, or OTT • -Class/Status= Low

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STIvNjWobzA

Yorkshire

• - Dialogue/dialect= 'Ey up’, ‘An' Ah'll tell thi that fernowt’, don’t pronounce ‘t’s’

• Costume= Flat caps, tweed jackets

• Location= Open fields, country pubs, Local shops

• Props= Whippets/Yorksireterrier and Yorkshire puddings

• Make up= Minimal/pale • Class/Status= Low (farmers)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzAD2GLfaNU

Geordies

• Stereotype= Loud, swear a lot, party animals and binge drinkers (help coined by Geordie Shore)

• Dialogue/dialect= ‘way eye man’, difficult to understand

• Costume= Revealing, tight clothing

• Location= Busy town centres, clubs, urban areas

• Make up= Over the top, fake tan, dark hair

• Class/Status= Lower middle/ middle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PVQbnvv79I

Mancs

• Stereotype= Loud, rude, funny and fond of fighting (Helped coined by Oasis)

• Dialogue/dialect= ‘Oh, aye’ ‘Nowt’

• Costume= Manchester United

• Shirt

• Location= Busy town centres

• Class/Status= Low/lower

• middle

Brummies

• Stereotype= Unintelligent and unfriendly

• Dialogue/dialect= 'Yow' heavily pronunciation the 'ow' of 'You'

• Costume= Casual/ Cheao

• Location= Busy, industrialised centres

• Make up= Greasy hair

• Class/Status= Low

Londoners (Northern/ more posh boroughs)

• - Dialogue/dialect= Well spoken, range of vocabulary

• -Costume= Cashmere jumpers/sweaters and suits

• -Location= Skyscrapers, swanky bars, posh homes

• -Props= Briefcase

• -Class/Status= Middle/upper

Londoners (Cockney/ South London)

• - Dialogue/dialect= ‘Gorblimey’, Rhyming slang ‘apples and pairs = stairs’,dropping ‘t’s’

• -Costume= Flat caps

• -Location= Busy streets, market stalls

• -Make up= Minimal

• -Class/Status= Low

Now think about programs/films set in the following locations, do they reinforce these stereotypes through mise-en-scene (location, setting, actors, props, costumes etc), camera work, sound (include dialect that could be colloquial) and editing?

• EastEnders• Shameless • TrainSpotting/Braveheart/Monarch of the Glen • Doc Martin • Emmerdale

The satellite map shows us a city sprawl so we know that the programme is set

in an urban area. However it is the River Thames than reveals the specific

location as being London.

Regional Identity can be seen by the views we see in the

picture. We can see the countryside in the distance and we can also see an old

vehicle of which is only used in the countryside.

You can tell that this is set in the country also

because the background of the first picture is the country

and in the second picture the house is styled as a country

house. Also, what the characters are wearing

symbolises ‘the country’

You can tell that this is set in an estate as there are flats in the background and the people look like they aren't of a high class because of the clothes they are wearing therefore we would expect them to live there and if there is a show about them

then it would be set here.

Manchester - Mancunians, or Mancs Liverpool – Scousers

Task: As you watch, write notes and then write one P.E.E for each of the following clips

As you watch, consider:•Setting•Accents•Dialogue•Props

•Make up•Class of characters

•Costumes

• As you watch, consider:

• Setting

• Accents

• Dialogue

• Props

• Make up

• Class of characters

• Costumes

For Regional Identity in Emmer dale we shall look at this clip for examples: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01QQB_nrOtU

Views at 0.30 show that the setting is in the country and we see straight away that all the views we see are all of this manor also/

We see that the clothes and possessions (van) show low class as the clothes look old and used as the van that the women is driving does too.

We know that they either run or live on a barn as when they open the barn we see a lot of sheep , which can only really be in the country which backs up our other beliefs.

We then see people decorating a house which we can see was very old by the décor for example the curtains are very countrified which means that if the house was oringinallydecorated as if it was in the country it is probably in the country.

We then see the sheep again and the farm surroundings which is repeated throughout which only drums in the fact that they are in the country and that that is their regional identity.

• Good example clips to look at during revision if you want to practice note taking include; Vicar of Dibley or Doc Martin (middle class/upper class characters do not have regional accents and are presented ‘as intelligent’ while the locals are ridiculed – this obviously links to Marxism).

Key Theorists

• Theorist Andrew Higson (1998) writes; “Identity is generally understood to be the shared identity of naturalized inhabitants of a particular political-geographic space – this can be a particular nation or region.”

• Benedict Anderson (1983) maintains that the media play a vital role in constructing a national/regional identity as in reality the nation is too big for everyone to know each other yet they often have shared values ; “The unification of people in the modern world is achieved not by military but by cultural means, in particular the media system enables people (of a nation or region) to feel part of a coherent, meaningful and homogenous community.”

Higson (1998) claims that many TV dramas (such as Eastenders, Corrie etc) demonstrate the importance of community and patriarchal values; “Social and cultural differences seem less significant when shared. The common purpose pulls the individual characters of the drama together, forges them into an organic, self-functioning community and ensures that each person has a clear role in the community. This small, self-contained functional community can then be read as standing for the nation, which is thereby imagined as a consensual gathering together of the diverse interests of individuals who make up that community.”

Higson (1998) and Corrigan (1992) argues that TV drama does not always present communities like this, “Identity is fluid, unstable and contingent on circumstances” (Corrigan 1992) “Allegiances are forever being made, unmade and remade; community cannot be taken for granted; they are insecure and often self-destructive…Tension of race, gender, sexuality, the family and generations represent not simply as multicultural but in disarray”(Higson 1998).

• In short, as Higson summarised; “Images of social and cultural disturbance and fragmentation are more prominent than images of consensual community” this obviously paints a slightly negative image of multicultural Britain.

• Higson goes onto argue that TV drama has to find ways of representing hybrid identities in multicultural Britain; “As Britain becomes visibly multicultural, so the makers of media texts have attempted to deal with plurality, to find space in representation for cultural minorities, ethnic or otherwise. In doing so, the cultural boundaries of the nation have been redefined, and a wider, more extended and hybrid national ‘community’ imagined.”

Constructing images of regional/national identity:

• According to Higson (1989) there are two ways in which the process of constructing images of national/regional identity should be understood; “The first involves an inward looking process, defining the nation in terms of its own cultural history. The second is a more outward-looking process, defining the nation in terms of its difference from others.”

In other words, stereotypes play a large role in constructing images of identity and these can either reaffirm notions of a nation (historic/culture) or contradict them. For example, as Higson (1998) states; “Film like Trainspotting (1995) deal with quite specific cultural traditions, including working class traditions, youth traditions, all of which can be subsumed under the umbrella term Britishness.” In other words, Trainspotting taps into traditional stereotypes of Scotland while illustrating what these stereotypes mean to working class youths (social-realist interpretation). Interestingly, this film changed the way this film represented Scotland changed outward perceptions of the nations (negatively).

Higson also argues that; “Representations of national/regional identity are constructed as the narrative of the text unfolds, as characters are pitted against one another, so a sense of identity emerges…but at the same time producers often resort to stereotyping as a means of establishing character and identity.”

• Higson goes on to say; “Stereotyping is a form of shorthand, a way of establishing character by adopting recognisable and well established conventions of representation…the stereotype reduces characters to the most basic form and attempts to naturalise them and the more widely recognisable they become the more readily they are accepted. Except that if a stereotype becomes more widely recognisable it becomes comic”.

• Higson adds; “No wonder then that a particular characterization may be critised for being stereotypical, meaning it lacks a realistic dimension, it fails to match up to the reality of identity.”

• As Higson points out, it is always important to analyse: “Identities and alliances, in particular relating to class, ethnicity, religion, class and gender.” In other words, how does a certain region seem to view these things and what does it imply the producer wants you to think about this region and its views.

In terms of regional identity, it is again important to remember Medhurt – think about who the dominant producers are because it is often the case they stereotype those ‘not like them’ (working class ‘Cornish Carrot Crunchers’ etc). Also, it is worth noting that if middle class white men appear in regional TV dramas (e.g. Dr Martin/Vicar of Dibley) they are usually made out to be educated and reasonable unlike the locals.