Abstract

In England in the opening decade of the 21st century there has been a resurgence of interest in
English folk and traditional music and dance. A number of different constructions of Englishness
circulate around these contemporary English folk arts, and one of these is the notion of Englishness
as a beleaguered identity. The paper identifies this idea of Englishness as beleaguered, and traces
some of its manifestations within and around the cultures of English folk, before going on to reflect
on its significance in a wider cultural and political context and with specific reference to
tourism. The research on which it draws was primarily conducted within an ethnographic research
project, 'Performing Englishness in New English Folk Music and Dance', supported by the Arts and
Humanities Research Council and conduced in 2007-2009 at the Centre for Research in Media and
Cultural Studies, University of Sunderland.