RE-ENACTING BEING AUTHENTIC. ENGLISHNESS AND ITS SIMULACRA.

In an age in which (re-)establishing an identity, a style, (re-)asserting a position, a status (both as a state and as an individual) are heavily influenced by pragmatism, consumerism and (personal or national) interest, works tackling the issue are often circumscribed to the concepts of parody, satire and simulacrum. Rarely are they all combined in a composite unit as in Julian Barnes' novel England, England. This paper renders the manner in which the concepts of identity and simulacrum are exploited in a ludic and sarcastically biting manner in an attempt to shed new light on their understanding, but also to bring the concept of experiment (at the levels of the literary technique and the fictionalized societal movement) to a new level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]