Englishness in Novels of Contemporary Immigrant Writers in Britain

While being fully aware of the implications of defining a national psychology the author is of the opinion that there is such thing as a national character though the concept requires other treatment than strictly scientific which is based on a set of characteristics proved to exist in a particular nation. Rather than being measurable and exact the concept of nations having particular qualities is present in people’s minds and despite the idea not being considered politically correct these days it is apparent that people are in fact aware of the differences between cultures (although their perceptions will be highly individual and subjective). Taking into account the national identity of the person describing another nation the concept is therefore best approached from the perspective of authors writing about a particular nation despite their foreign origins.