Topic: British Identity Construction in the “How Green was my Valley” novel by R.Llewellyn
Based on a novel "How Green Was my Valley" by Richard Llewellyn, write a five to seven page paper in which you analyze how the novelist illustrates aspects of the construction of British Identity. In addition to the novel itself, you must use two scholarly sources in your analysis. These should be article-length works, and can be either articles from scholarly journals or chapters from academic monographs or collections of essays.
In the first part of your paper, please briefly summarize the novel, paying particular attention to the historical events or themes you will focus on. Remember that your goal is to
assess the author?s definition of ?Britishness?, so you should not spend much time recounting
or analyzing the novel?s literary significance or the development of characters. In other words,
the novels listed all display things like family dynamics, personal conflicts or romance, but these are not the focus of your paper. Be sure that anything you do say about individual
characters or their relationships with others in the novel connects to your argument about the
author?s view of British identity.
After summarizing the historical aspects of the novel, please place the work in its
context. How well does the author illustrate the theme of the construction or changing
definitions of British identity? Does he/she recount events accurately? Does his/her portrayal
differ from historians? accounts? If it does differ, what new perspective does the author bring
and how would you account for the differences? In other words, part of your assignment is to
assess the differences between a historical novel and historians? accounts or primary sources and to discuss the value of each for understanding a particular historical period.
Remember that you must cite all of your sources, whether the novel, the articles or class
materials, fully and accurately. You may use whichever citation style you use for your major for
your outside sources, and you may use the book reviewers? convention of citing the novel with
page numbers in parentheses within the text, with the novel?s full citation in your bibliography.