Without “you” I'm nothing: making white Britishness online

摘要

Drawing on ethnographic data, this article examines the construction of British identity in an online community. Throughout, I specifically consider the function of “whiteness” - which often serves as a synonym for Britishness - as I explore the strategies of speaking subjects in the constitution of “self”. Analysing everyday discourse in relation to a wider hegemonic field where whiteness and Britishness are made to seem inextricably connected, I draw on the work of Edward Said and others - demonstrating that the discursive character of such an identity always entails the creation of an “other” who is made to stand as the place-holder of absolute difference. I endeavour to isolate specific constituting strategies so as to unmask the exclusionary structure of identity, while at the same time demonstrating the vulnerability of hegemonic meaning, which is consumed, negotiated, concretized or refused in and through routine interaction.