Abstract
Max ERNST, a surrealist painter and writer, stated in Ecritures, "l'identité sera convulsive ou ne sera pas". The political concept of national identity has always made up the core of a nation, from its birth to its rehearsal. As national identity aims at defining what is to be French, British or Chinese, a convulsive identity can be understood as a violent, jerky and uncontrollable concept. Strictly defined, identity is the range of self-conscious elements that remain the same. How then can an immovable national identity face a changing world? How may we seize the identity dimension of a nation when challenged by external models? One may point out that the idea of identity is a thorny and controversial subject and that Max ERNST seems to be right: identity must be jostled, and questioned in order to exist, and to become concrete within our minds. This "essential glue that binds people together" is thus the identity which we will attempt to define through the British case. Moreover, school is often considered as the cement that consolidates identity. What measured can be implemented at the scholar level to strengthen national cohesion?
