Narrating Individual and Cultural Identity in Julian Barnes’s England, England

Abstract

The conception of culture and identity has seen variations with the passage of time. Postmodern writers and thinkers do not consider them fixed or stable entities but fluid and fragmented. In the past they were treated as centered and fixed but in present conflicting scenario they are supposed to be decentered and deconstructed. In  postmodern world, when each and everything is tinted with the effect of science and technology, contemporary generation is imbibing a new spirit of materialism. The more they are developing with the help of technology the less they are finding solution and satisfaction. Advancement of science and technology has coloured each and every object of contemporary era and projected them as mere objects of marketisation. This comodification and marketisation of objects has reached to such level that everything has lost its original meaning and value. It becomes obvious that culture and identity are not untouched by this effect. The more we are advancing towards technological development the more we are losing the original ground of ancient meaning and value. Julian Barnes entertains and mocks this idea in his novel  England, England in which Barnes’s ambitious mission is search for individual identity of  the English characters and cultural identity of England.