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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Darren KelseyORCiD
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This paper analyses the myth of the Blitz spirit in British newspaper discourses of the City and economy after the London bombings on July 7th, 2005. The Blitz spirit is a popular story of Britain during the Second World War, uniting together with defiance and resilience to overcome the threat of invasion from Nazi Germany. Through Roland Barthes’ model of myth this paper discusses the myth of the Blitz spirit in memories of wartime London. A Critical Discourse Analysis then explores the ideological impact of Blitz spirit discourses in hyperbolised coverage of City traders and the economy in 2005. I argue that the ideological complexities of Western economics and the free market were suppressed by a myth that sought to bind social classes together through evocations of British, wartime solidarity and defiance. But this paper also argues that Blitz spirit evocations among City traders were contradicted by discourses that discussed British citizens as consumers through anxieties about the economy after the bombings.
Author(s): Kelsey D
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Critical Discourse Studies
Year: 2012
Volume: 9
Issue: 3
Pages: 285-299
Print publication date: 01/06/2012
ISSN (print): 1740-5904
ISSN (electronic): 1740-5912
Publisher: Routledge
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2012.688299
DOI: 10.1080/17405904.2012.688299
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