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Version vom 20. Januar 2020, 01:32 Uhr

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The newpaper article “Brexit is entrenching some dangerous myths about ‘British’ culture” written by Afua Hirsch and published in ‘The Guardian’ on 25 May 2017 deals with the position of the British culture to the Brexit and the interior conflicts. In her article Afua Hirsch mentions both sides of the British history, the thoughts of the British culture about Brexit and her own opinion to the situation in Britain. At first she starts with her headline and a subheading, which both attract the attention of the readership by terms like “dangerous myths” and “more hostile and alarming”. She also put a photo next to her text, which has the caption “Britain First and EDL protesters stage a demonstration in London”. It makes clear that there are some interior conflicts in Britain because of the Brexit. Then she starts her text with an introducing comment what shows that she is incorporating her opinion into the article (cf. ll. 1-3). After that she talks about the good history of Britain. She goes on talking about the bad history of Britain to show both of the sides but also to underline that every country has bad events in the past (cf. ll.3-29). She brings this message across by mentioning the example with “Winston Churchill” (l.17f) who killed “savages” in Sudan. In the next paragraph the author add results and statistics from a survey in Britain what is about the opinion of the British about the situation there. It shows that “[…]more than half of British people […]” (ll. 31f) feel hostile to immigrants. Besides, “[m]ore than half of the British people” (ll. 40f) think that immigrants destroy their culture, so they want to get isolated by them to “get [their] country back”. Afua Hirsch put this statistics in her article to give the reader the chance to understand the British people. She also mentions the big call of British against black people in their country (cf. ll. 64ff). At this point she wants her readership to realize the situation in Britain and the thoughts and fears of the British people. However, then she switches to her opinion about the events in Britain. First, she says that every country or every culture is influented by other cultures and traditions. To connect this statement with the British situation, she gives a list of some examples like the “fish and chips” (l. 79) which are from Portugal. With the examples she gains more credibility for her statement and the readership tends to understand her. At the end of her article she makes clear that the British people lost the thread to reality because they demonstrate against immigrants who destroy their culture. She think so because of the fact that every culture is influented by other cultures, so there is no “thoroughbred” culture (cf. 90ff). To summarize, Afua Hirsch wants to show how British people think and feel about the Brexit and added her own position to underline that the hostility of British against immigrants is false because immigrants can not destroy a “thoroughbred” culture since there is no “thoroughbred” culture.

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The given newspaper article is an opinion piece which is written by the columnist Afua Hirsch. In context to that it becomes clear that she does not only wants to inform but to persuade the readership about her opinion about Britain's cultural development.

The given article is divided into seven paragraphs. In the fisrt few lines she introduces the readership to Britain's situation and leading role. In the topic sentence she already awake the interest of the reader because of the two sides of Britain (ll. 1- -13). Furthermore, she states examples to illustrate the history and the problematic contradictory present of Britain, which support the understanding for readership to her introduction into the topic (ll. 13-29). Besides, she points out the different opinions of the multicultural life in Britain by including a survey what appears really trustful and convincing(ll.30-43). In addition to that she lits up the movement and the associated demand of being independent. So far she also includes the problematic movements in connection with the Brexit(ll. 44-57). In context to that she makes clear that there is formation and distance of different ethnical and separated groups in the society by referring to the Opinium Poll what underlines her point of view(ll. 58-73). Later on she refers to the fact that the union of different cultures influence the British culture by including several common examples so far everybody coild identity with at least one of them(ll.74-86). Finally, she concludes her impression of the British movement by including own experiences what is really authentic and appeals to the audience by inviting the readership(ll. 87-105).

Throughout her newspaper article Afua Hirsch employs some stylistic devices to emphasize her point of view. First of all it become clear that she qoutes ites several experts like the "international trade secretary Liam Fox" (ll. 7 ff.) and includes facts and figures which are underlined by surveys (cf. Ll. 31ff). So far she wants to convince the audience that she expresses trustful and authentic information and that her opinion of the racist movement in Britain along the Brexit and the isolation of ethnic minorities is pervasive is behind an opinion of somebody else. Furthermore she includes a methaphor in context to the statement that the aim of the Brexit is to get their country back which can be understand that their "country [should be] white again" (l.52). This leads to the problematic that there is movement against ethnic minorities what she underlines by including her own experiences and the personal pronoun 'I' (cf.55f.). In context to that she wants to emphasize to the audience especially those who feel concerned and in the same position like her. Later on she includes several examples in a construction of an enumeration "suxh as fish and chips, an innovation of Jewish refugees from Portugal. Roads and cities built by the Romans, banks were founded by Huguenots, a royal household established by a broad cross-section of European aristocracy" (ll. 78ff.). According to that she wants to stress that the complex of different influences of different cultures should not be destroyed ny the recent situation of the Brexit.

Regarding to her use of informl language it is becoming clear that she makes use of short forms to emphasize to the readership. Due to that fact she is mostly employs negative words that illustrate the conflict amd problem in Britain. In context to that it is apparent that she is connecting zhe Brexit with aspects like "racism" (l. 70) against "ethinic minority British" (l. 59) but also the development of the "idea [of] British culture" (l. 74). This shows that her choice of words effects the message of the text. Besides, she uses verbs in the past tense purposely to relate on what have already influenced the British culture (cf. Ll. 78ff.).

In general I come to the conclusion that the news article of Afua Hirsch is really convincing with reference to the recent situation and movements that also becomes an international phenomenon. All in all the author in persuading by including own experiences.