(De)Constructing the Myth of the North in British Cinema (1959-2019)

The British North has featured regularly on screen since 1959. The representation of its industrial and urban features has given birth to a two-pronged mythical construction over sixty years: a geographical and a psychoanalytical/gendered one using the figure of the Northerner. Cinema is a myth and...

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Main Author: Anne-Lise Marin-Lamellet
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centre de Recherche et d'Etudes en Civilisation Britannique 2020-05-01
Series:Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/5554
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author Anne-Lise Marin-Lamellet
author_facet Anne-Lise Marin-Lamellet
author_sort Anne-Lise Marin-Lamellet
collection DOAJ
description The British North has featured regularly on screen since 1959. The representation of its industrial and urban features has given birth to a two-pronged mythical construction over sixty years: a geographical and a psychoanalytical/gendered one using the figure of the Northerner. Cinema is a myth and identity maker but it is also a medium which has reflected the socioeconomic evolutions of the North, first synonymous with relative prosperity and modernity until the 1980s, then decline and recession owing to deindustrialisation. Simultaneously, films try to deconstruct both the archetypal North – which ends up being geographically and socioeconomically more diverse than it first seems to be – and the figure of the Northerner – who takes his self-proclaimed image or the one that the South seeks to give him with a pinch of salt. The common identity of Northerners mostly channelled through their common aversion towards the South nonetheless leads them to reconstruct the myth of their native North.
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spelling doaj.art-91a36152a6194b1b8df25eb1092c9da32022-12-22T00:01:49ZengCentre de Recherche et d'Etudes en Civilisation BritanniqueRevue Française de Civilisation Britannique0248-90152020-05-0125210.4000/rfcb.5554(De)Constructing the Myth of the North in British Cinema (1959-2019)Anne-Lise Marin-LamelletThe British North has featured regularly on screen since 1959. The representation of its industrial and urban features has given birth to a two-pronged mythical construction over sixty years: a geographical and a psychoanalytical/gendered one using the figure of the Northerner. Cinema is a myth and identity maker but it is also a medium which has reflected the socioeconomic evolutions of the North, first synonymous with relative prosperity and modernity until the 1980s, then decline and recession owing to deindustrialisation. Simultaneously, films try to deconstruct both the archetypal North – which ends up being geographically and socioeconomically more diverse than it first seems to be – and the figure of the Northerner – who takes his self-proclaimed image or the one that the South seeks to give him with a pinch of salt. The common identity of Northerners mostly channelled through their common aversion towards the South nonetheless leads them to reconstruct the myth of their native North.http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/5554cinemaworking classNorthernermasculinityNorth of Englanddeindustrialisation
spellingShingle Anne-Lise Marin-Lamellet
(De)Constructing the Myth of the North in British Cinema (1959-2019)
Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique
cinema
working class
Northerner
masculinity
North of England
deindustrialisation
title (De)Constructing the Myth of the North in British Cinema (1959-2019)
title_full (De)Constructing the Myth of the North in British Cinema (1959-2019)
title_fullStr (De)Constructing the Myth of the North in British Cinema (1959-2019)
title_full_unstemmed (De)Constructing the Myth of the North in British Cinema (1959-2019)
title_short (De)Constructing the Myth of the North in British Cinema (1959-2019)
title_sort de constructing the myth of the north in british cinema 1959 2019
topic cinema
working class
Northerner
masculinity
North of England
deindustrialisation
url http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/5554
work_keys_str_mv AT annelisemarinlamellet deconstructingthemythofthenorthinbritishcinema19592019