ABSTRACT
The British empire had many echoes in the 1980s. The quotations above capture the essence of two conflicting views; but they have one thing in common-a sense of irony. The ambivalence expressed in the ironic tone has been a key element of the 1980s; a decade characterized by shifting social and political alliances, and the slow, steady inversion of older symbols and meanings. In this essay the intention is to explore such changes; to ask how identities have come to be formed, expressed and contested.
