Rob Burton

Cornish Identity Rob Burton

This book explores the Cornish Identity from a sociological perspective. Rob Burton's PhD thesis of which this book consists was submitted to the University of Exeter in July 2000. In the intervening years debates around identity have exploded impacting upon every area of the human experiences from where and how we live to our intimate inner lives and sexuality.

As this book suggests identities, far from being essentialist and given are produced, manufactured, re-invented, borrowed, manipulated and marketed. Dr Burton's thesis points to those who are closely involved in the identity business, the "cultural entrepreneurs". In Cornwall they consist of a group of academics and activists who work to create the breeding ground for the claims of Cornishness, seeding the social milieu with claims of authenticity for such markers as the language and a specific and different history.

Thus, a constructed Cornish identity is shaped through interactions with the dominant culture, the English culture, and by the continued discourse within Cornwall about Cornish identity. Cornish identity, Dr Burton argues, is in part, a castle in the air, a hybridisation of a particular social process that is unique (at the moment) to those people who live within the geographical boundaries of the country named England. The modern re-creation of a Cornish identity had its genesis in the late 1970s/early 1980s and it is in this context that we can say in 2022 that the Cornish still do have a passion to exist.

Rob Burton is currently a lecturer for the School of International Communications and Education at the Communication University of Zhejiang, in Hangzhou, China. He has most recently published books on Teaching English as a Foreign Language, most notably the IELTS examination and is also the author of three novels available on Amazon