self-identification

This article examines one version of national self-identification against the background of the “Other”. In 1758, Horace Walpole published the notes of the English ambassador Charles Whitworth on his stay in Russia from 1704 to 1710 at his publishing house, Strawberry Hill. The publisher included his comments in the “Introduction,” placed immediately before the text. The “Introduction” contains an extensive panegyric on Whitworth as a model representative of English diplomacy. At the same time, very little is said about the content of the text written by Whitworth.

The article is devoted to the problem of searching for “places of memory”, variants of national self-identity in the English culture of the Enlightenment era. It is shown that the long-term Anglo-French political rivalry prevented the use of the experience of continental neighbors in art, and the long-standing tradition of the historical genre, representing timeless eternal ethical values, has almost exhausted itself.