On The Construction Of British National Identity In The Dark Rising Sequence

The Dark is Rising quintet,including Over Sea,Under Stone,The Dark is Rising,Greenwitch,The Grey King and Silver on the Tree,is the masterpiece of Susan Cooper who is an English children's fantasy writer.The sequence received a variety of awards,including Newbery Medal,Newbery Honor Book and Carnegie Medal and so on forth.It was created from 1965 to 1979,in which UK experienced cruel damage and ruthless destruction of World War I and World War II.After the two World War,UK lost gradually its hegemonic position in the word.The disintegration and decaying of the UK resulted in English people's anxieties and worries about their national identities,leading to further English national identity crisis.Under the circumstances,hundreds of writers and scholars began to construct English national identity through their literary creations.Children's fantasy writers also took part in the constructions.As an indigenous and typical English writer,living in the special period and influenced deeply by J.R.R Tolkien and C.S.Lewis when she was studying in Oxford,Cooper intended to construct English national identity through creating her The Dark is Rising sequence.First of all,Cooper attempted to construct English national identity through regarding English lands as the primary story settings.Through regarding Cornwall,Wales and Buckinghamshire as the doomed hiding locations of all “Power of Things” rather than any other corners of the world,Cooper built a sense of national pride and ethnocentrism.In the plot,Cooper attempted to arouse English readers' resonances to construct English national identity through showing them the most typical landscapes of the United Kingdom.Secondly,Cooper tried to construct English national identity through regarding English national myths,Arthurian legends,as the bases to write The Dark is Rising sequence and create its primary framework,and through introducing romantic figures into the sequence and shaping their descendants to rebuild national mythology and construct national identity.Finally,Cooper planned to construct English national identity through embedding national cultures into the sequence and praising patriotism.Embedding national cultures into the quintet was to inherit,develop and spread them.To praise soldiers who fight for righteousness and the safety of country was to praise patriotism.Therefore,through developing national mythology and praising patriotism,Cooper constructed English national identity.