(Un)Making the Monarchy

‘(Un)Making the Monarchy’ offers a kaleidoscopic view on the British monarchy – an institution that today seems integral, almost inevitable, to the British political system and the very texture of Britishness/Englishness. The contributions in this volume seek to historicise, contextualise, and politicise such dominant myths of the monarchy. They look at the strategies through which monarchical power has been legitimised and naturalised in the texts and practices of (not only) British culture and at the way in which the monarchy has, in turn, been used to legitimise and naturalise other hegemonic structures in society. They also engage with the forms and practices that have sought to contest and subvert monarchical power. Contributors thus tackle the psychological, performative, and political dimensions of monarchical reign, examine supportive as well as critical, satirical, and anti-monarchist representations in literature, theatre, the media, and deal with some of the monarchy’s self-representations through public relations, fashion, and language.