Essay from the year 2018 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, Uppsala University (English Department), course: MA Course: Englishness and the Making of Cultural Identity, language: English, abstract: This essay aims to compare Kazuo Ishiguro's book 'The Remains of the Day' (1989) and Julian Barnes' book 'England, England' (1998) with regard to the manner in which they construct and deconstruct England as a nation and ideal. The relationship between individual and national identity, the selective nature of national history as well as the role of myth and nostalgia within the 'imagined political community' of England will be discussed.