ABSTRACT
Britain's history of Empire, its Commonwealth legacies and ample experiences with multiculturalism and liberal individualism set the background to contemporary discourses on gender and cosmopolitanism in Britain. Cosmopolitanism as a broader cultural theme emerged in the English language in the early 19th century, which was characterised by expanding nationalism and imperialism. Held's outlook on cosmopolitanism is shaped by an individualising discourse that overemphasises the formal freedom of individuals while widely neglecting those conditions based on class, gender and/or ethnicity that hinder freedom rights from being enacted substantially. Bhabha's focus on minoritarian cosmopolitanism and the counter image of the 'cosmofeminine' maintain the utopian potential of those British legacies that have historically articulated vernacular cosmopolitanism alongside commercial and colonial cosmopolitanism. Despite their distinctive approaches Held and Bhabha express in their topical reference system the impact of the British historical context and articulate the dynamic acculturations of its different ethnic minorities.
