Britishness, myths and heroes.

Britishness

So today we are going to talk about Myths and heroes, two things that are part of the base of a society and it's culture. First what is a myth exactly? The word comes from the Greek word Mythos which means "Story", the word in itself means a bit more than that. It is a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining a natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.

The second word is Hero. Hero comes form the greek "Héros" which means "warrior". A hero is often considered as a half-god in mythology, and in general is a person who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.

Each society is built on these two things but they are specific to each culture that is why we talked about British heroes and characters which lead us actually to ask ourselves in what ways british characters and well known celebrities help us to see what Britishness really is?

First we will talk about what Britishness really is and and secondly how it is illustrated by British characters.

Britishness is something quite vague. For some it evokes sipping tea at a polo match for others it represents punk music and skinheads down in some pub.

Britishness is simply a mix of everything that is considered purely british.

As shown in the article from the Telegraph "We, the British" studied in class it is difficult to define this term. The author of this article points out all different kind of British characters from Wallace and Gromit to James Bond.

Britishness is a group of clichés that are more or less true that distinguishes Brits from others. Being British in the United Kingdom is considered being proud of your culture as the British are a very proud nation. It shines through their humour, their attitude, the great figures whether political or cultural. All this is shown through a series of ads by Eurostar studied in class. Each ad shows something different about British culture for example British humour through Mr. Bean, the rock and roll aspect born in the mid 70's through a Punk, etc. People associate britishness to a unlimited number of things, places, people...They are known for their stiff upper lip, tolerance and diversity But Britishness is en extensive association of the strong color in the heterogenic nature of brits to a simple word that represents an entire panel of possible notions.

Many British characters have become worldwide heroes that represent britishness.

If we take Sherlock Holmes for example he is one of the most well-known characters in the entire world. Just the setting of the stories in London allows the character to express everything British about himself: from his dress sense to his rationalism. He represents also eccentricity which is a big thing in the UK. It is a promoted value as it distinguishes each person from each other, and allows weird and wonderful things to flourish.

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