People Like Ourselves

Essay from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1, University of Göttingen (Englisches Seminar Uni Göttingen), course: Advanced British Landeskunde, language: English, abstract: In 1940, famous George Orwell accepted as a fact that England was ''the most class-ridden society under the sun.' The traditional class distinctions have been blurred since the egalitarian revolution of the 60s, what has gone is at least ''the will to erect, maintain and police such distinctions.'' However, today England still is a highly class-conscious culture and people seem to have very sensitive antennas to localise their fellow Englishmen's exact position on the social map. This essay is supposed to examine how these ''on-board class-radar systems'' work, that means by which criteria social class is distinguished in today's English society.