BRITISH IDENTITY AND THE GERMAN OTHER A Dissertation ...

personalities. Evaluating the historical significance of the attitudes and values represented by
these mental icons, without attempting to fathom the personal motivations of a generation of
long-deceased writers, therefore requires some reference to the insights of identity theory. Some
discussion of British historical memory, national myth and recurring themes—the canvas upon
which late and post-Victorian images of Germany were painted—will also prove useful in
understanding how national distinctions tended to cast Germany as Britain’s modern opposite
and arch nemesis.
The following chapters move from the general to the specific. Chapter 2 traces the
historiography of national identity and citizenship laws as well as psychological theory behind
group identification and stereotyping. Chapter 3 deals with the formation of modern British and
English identity and cultural factors differentiating Britain from modern Europe, and Germany in
particular, on matters involving individualism, the treatment of Jews, historical memory and
geopolitical orientation. The chapter closes with a discussion and examples of conscious
stereotyping by British writers in the nineteenth century, how a few intuited the cultural and
psychological dynamics affecting perception of self and other on a national level but indulged in
stereotyping just the same. Chapter 4 delves into prevailing national, imperial and racial myth in
Victorian/Edwardian Britain and significant themes that underscored the providential uniqueness
of Britons in contrast to Europeans and Germans in particular. Chapter 5 focuses specifically on
the origins and persistence of German stereotypes from ancient times into the modern era and
how images of Old Germany colored British reactions to German cultural developments.
Chapter 6 concerns the staying power of the “unpolitical German” stereotype through Germany’s
transition to a politically unified state under Prussian leadership, and how the coexistence of
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