EMPIRE, IDEOLOGY AND ART

POPULAR ENTERTAINMENTS IN ENGLAND CENTURY PURPOSES XIX

Abstract

The capitalist imperialism that emerged in the 19th century brought with it specific ways to interpret the world, essencials to the maintenance of this system. Changes in the capitalist mode of production and, especially, the formation of an overseas empire, needed to be explained and accepted by all English society. The imperial ideology that arose during this period spread throughout society, assisting the dispute over the hegemony and the convincing of all classes of the justice of the imperial cause. This imperial ethos spreads by society, influencing decisively the English nationalism from then on. One of the main sources to evaluate the dissemination of imperial ideology in large sections of the population is popular leisure, which in theory is not submitted directly to the intentions of the ruling classes. It is through the music hall and melodrama that I will seek to map the force of the imperial nationalism of the period, while at the same time point to the progress and limits of this ideology and to the various forms of nationalism that coexisted in the period.