Lyn Thomas

DE/CONSTRUCTING “SUSPECT” COMMUNITIES

Irish and Muslim communities in Britain are, or have often been, constructed negatively in public discourse, where they have been associated with terrorism and extremism. Despite similarities in the experiences of these communities, little comparative research has been conducted. We address this gap by implementing a critical discourse analysis of national and diaspora press coverage of events involving Irish and Muslim communities that occurred in Great Britain between 1974 and 2007. We identified a consensus within the press that “law-abiding” Irish and Muslim people must stand up against “extremists” within their ranks and defend what newsmakers perceive are British values; in this way Irish and Muslim communities are constructed as both inside and outside Britishness. We conclude that the construction of these communities as “suspect” happens mostly in the ambiguity of news discourse, which contributes to fostering a socio-political climate that has permitted civil liberties to be violated by the state security apparatus.

ALTERNATIVE REALITIES: Downshifting narratives in contemporary lifestyle television

This article will examine representations in contemporary British lifestyle television which express ambivalence about the benefits of a work-dominated, consumerist mode of living, and where a quest for alternative pleasures or practices drives the narrative. Rather than focusing on clearly contestatory voices and practices, such as environmental and anti-capitalist campaigns, groups or internet sites, I am looking at ‘mainstream’ media texts driven by commercial imperatives. My purpose here is to argue that ambivalent consumerism can be seen as a cultural continuum, a set of discursive networks which function across a range of differentiated sites, and are not confined to alternative or marginal contexts. The article explores the nature of these commercially produced and determined representations. How are narratives of ‘downsizing’ and ‘downshifting’, of escaping abroad or to the country, to a better ‘quality of life’ constructed in contemporary television? What is the significance of ‘eco-reality’ programmes where excessive consumption of the earths resources is directly addressed? And finally: does a phenomenon which clearly implies the construction of a new niche market have any broader political significance and potential?

In Love with Inspector Morse: Feminist Subculture and Quality Television

This article consists of textual analysis of a highly successful television series, Inspector Morse, combined with qualitative audience study. The study of Morse and the fan culture surrounding it is presented in the context of a discussion of recent feminist work on the texts and audiences of popular culture. The textual analysis focuses on those elements of the programmes which contribute to its success as ‘quality’ television, and particularly on Morse as an example of the role played by nostalgic representations of Englishness in ‘quality’ media texts of the 1980s. The article goes on to discuss whether the presence of such representations in these programmes leads inevitably to a convergence of ‘quality’ and conservative ideology. The discussion of the ideological subtexts of the programmes then focuses on the area of gender representation, and on the extent to which feminist influences are discernible in this example of quality popular culture, particularly in its representations of masculinity. The second part of the article presents an analysis of a discussion group involving fans of the series, which was organized as part of a larger qualitative study of the fan culture surrounding the programmes. There is a detailed discussion of the impact of the social dynamics of the group on their readings of Morse. The analysis also focuses on the ways in which the discourses identified in the textual analysis, such as gender representation, quality and Englishness, are mobilized in talk about the programmes. Finally, the nature of the group made it possible to discuss the construction of a feminist subcultural identity in talk about a mainstream media text, and to identify irony and critical distance as key components of that identity, particularly in the discussion of the pleasures offered by the romance narratives of the programmes.

Social cohesion and the notion of ‘suspect communities’: a study of the experiences and impacts of being ‘suspect’ for Irish communities and Muslim communities in Britain

In this article, we consider how the practice of conceiving of groups within civil society as ‘communities’ meshes with conceptualisations of certain populations as ‘suspect’ and consider some of the impacts and consequences of this for particular populations and for social cohesion. We examine how Irish and Muslim people in Britain have become aware of and have experienced themselves to be members of ‘suspect communities’ in relation to political violence and counterterrorism policies from 1974 to 2007 and investigate the impacts of these experiences on their everyday lives. The study focuses on two eras of political violence. The first coincides with the Irish Republican Armys (IRA) bombing campaigns in England between 1973 and 1996, when the perpetrators were perceived as ‘Irish terrorists’; and the second since 2001, when, in Britain and elsewhere, the main threat of political violence has been portrayed as stemming from people who are assumed to be motivated by extreme interpretations of Islam and are often labelled as ‘Islamic terrorists’. We outline why the concept of ‘suspect communities’ continues to be analytically useful for examining: the impact of ‘bounded communities’ on community cohesion policies; the development of traumatogenic environments and their ramifications; and for examining how lessons might be learnt from one era of political violence to another, especially as regards the negative impacts of practices of suspectification on Irish communities and Muslim communities. The research methods included discussion groups involving Irish and Muslim people. These demonstrated that with the removal of discourses of suspicion the common ground of Britains urban multiculture was a sufficient basis for sympathetic exchanges.

Constructing ‘suspect’ communities and Britishness: Mapping British press coverage of Irish and Muslim communities, 1974–2007

There exist many parallels between the experiences of Irish communities in Britain in the past and those of Muslim communities today. However, although they have both been the subject of negative stereotyping, intelligence profiling, wrongful arrest and prejudice, little research has been carried out comparing how these communities are represented in the media. This article addresses this gap by mapping British press coverage of events involving Irish and Muslim communities that occurred between 1974 and 2007. The analysis shows that both sets of communities have been represented as ‘suspect’ to different degrees, which the article attributes to varying perceptions within the press as to the nature of the threat Irish and Muslim communities are thought to pose to Britain. The article concludes that a central concern of the press lies with defending its own constructions of Britishness against perceived extremists, and against abuses of power and authority by the state security apparatus.

Writing from Experience: The Place of the Personal in French Feminist Writing

Through a discussion of the work of Marie Cardinal and Annie Ernaux, this article aims to problematize the anglophone academic worlds tendency to associate French feminisms predominantly with avant-garde or highly theoretical texts. The work of Ernaux and Cardinal is presented alongside a discussion of its reception by readers and critics in France, and by academics in English-speaking countries. The first part of the article identifies aspects of Ernauxs and Cardinals works which cannot be encompassed within a critical framework based on the dichotomy between naive realism on the one hand and the politically and linguistically radical text on the other. Ernauxs plain language, for instance, is clearly very unlike the linguistic experimentation of ‘feminine writing’ nonetheless the emphasis on social class in her writing constitutes a political intervention which is at least equally valid.The reception study in the second part of the article provides further evidence of the relevance to gender politics in France of Cardinals The Words to Say It (1975) and texts published by Annie Ernaux in the 1980s and 1990s. The ambivalent response of critics seems to indicate the troubling nature of writing which combines the codes of realism and autobiography (or autobiographical fiction in Cardinals case) with the depiction of taboo subjects such as menstruation, or a daughters response to her mothers debilitating illness and death. The article also charts the widespread popularity of these texts in France, particularly with women readers, and gives some examples of the pleasures described in letters to the authors. In conclusion, we argue that the ambivalent space between popular and high culture occupied (albeit differently) by Ernaux and Cardinal may be particularly effective in terms of gender politics, and that even in the late 1990s, the personal may be as political as ever.

Changing old habits? ‘New Age’ Catholicism, subjectivity and gender in BBC2’s The Monastery and its reception

This article focuses on a recent BBC television programme, The Monastery, and its reception. The analysis demonstrates how religion becomes visible here through a hybrid televisual form merging ‘reality’ conventions with those of quality television. It argues that this ‘quality reality’ format both participates in, and nuances the making of class and gender in reality television. The analysis suggests that the religious culture represented here is also hybrid, combining elements of the alternative and subjectively focused spiritual practices researched by Heelas and Woodhead with Catholicism. The second part of the article discusses the responses to these representations of a small number of engaged viewers recruited at retreats at the filmed monastery, Worth Abbey in Sussex. It argues that the programme’s hybrid forms and representations, and particularly its representation of caring and spiritual masculinity, can explain its appeal to predominantly middle-class, white women viewers.

working-class whiteness from within and without: an auto-ethnographic response to Avtar Brah's ‘the scent of memory’

Inspired by and responding to Avtar Brahs ‘The Scent of Memory’, this piece attempts to reinscribe race into an auto-ethnographic narrative where previously whiteness was unmarked. It explores the dynamics of gender, race and class through the authors personal history as a white English woman and class migrant, and through discussion of the broader political and historical context of that trajectory. The discussion includes analysis of the impact of British Conservative politician Enoch Powells infamous ‘rivers of blood’ speech in 1968 on the authors white English working-class culture of origin in Wolverhampton, where Powell was a Member of Parliament. The article considers the speechs continuing ramifications in the twenty-first century and in more middle-class contexts, as evidenced by the recent evocation of the speech by historian David Starkey in discussion of the ‘riots’ of August 2011 in British cities. The personal history is reconstructed through a series of memory scenes that trace and retrace the authors experience and understanding of race and its intersections with class and gender; this is attempted in full cognisance of the constructed nature of memory, and of the performance of identity that autobiography entails. The piece draws on the work of the class migrant white French writer Annie Ernaux, with whom the author has been in dialogue since 1997.

Exploring the interspace: recent dialogues around the work of Annie Ernaux

National Seminar on Literature, Sociology and Theatre: ‘The Social and Political Impact of Annie Ernauxs Writing in the Construction of Identity’ (Vincennes, 28–30 October 2002) International Conference: ‘Annie Ernaux: Writing in the Interspace’ (Arras, 18–19 November 2002)

The Condition of Women in France: 1945 to the Present. A Documentary Anthology

1. The Post-War 2. Le Deuxieme Sexe 3. The 1950s 4. The 1960s 5. THe MLF 6. Language 7. Work, Politics and Power 8. Home Life 9. French Contemporary Womens Writing