Regional Inequality and the North-South Divide

There is a longstanding and culturally embedded acknowledgment that there exists a North-South divide in England which is arguably reinforced through character and narrative representations in literature. Many of these texts are compulsorily studied as part of the Key Stage 4 national curriculum, informing and influencing the social identities of young people aged 15-16, living with the realities or stigma of regional inequality.

Extensive data exists to evidence both the issues and the catastrophic impact of regional inequality which effects the socio-political landscape of England, specifically the division between the North and South. Issues that are reflected in a vast range of literary and dramatic works, and the pessimistic and resigned or cynical use of stereotype and caricature arguably perpetuate such regional inequalities experienced by real people in real life.

However, whilst such data relating to regional inequality and a North-South divide is readily available, there is little understanding as to how the self – determination of young people is influenced through their exposure to specific works of literature. If a young person is consistently exposed to negative or mono-dimensional representations of themselves in literature and culture, what impact can we as educators expect this to have on their development and mental imagery? I ask this not as a rhetorical question but as a point of necessary progress for teaching and analysing the context and impact of literature in the classroom.

The government includes “education” in its definition of socio-economic disparity, and there is a robust understanding that precipitators for such crises include digital illiteracy, lack of support within the home and non-attendance at school. This is over and above the devastating impact of Covid-19. However more needs to be done to identify how progress can be made in mitigating the North-South divide and regional inequality within the classroom. I propose that this includes addressing the key role that literature has to play in that advancement.

An established literary and cultural heritage illustrates representations of the North largely from a non-Northern perspective, consider the grim accounts of Dickens in Hard Times, and Gaskell’s Mary Barton. These moments on the literary map can be traced onward towards Orwell and The Road to Wigan Pier and John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger, works that collectively chart a literary North – South divide and reinforce stereotype and caricature.

The cultural promotion of an intellectual South and Industrial North along with resistance to regional dialect within the English canon sends a consistent message to the inhabitants of those places, that their value is dictated by a higher power and out of their hands.

Where then does this leave us as educators? What should we be doing day to day to address the subject? Taking into account that not one winner of the Nobel prize for Literature has been born in the North of England, do we have a responsibility to help re-write the Northern narrative and mindfully foster a positive regional representation, calling inequality to account? I think we do. It is important that the works I have mentioned, and others, remain part of the curriculum because if we do not recognise where we were, how can we see how far we have to travel and indeed, how far we have come. The need for progress is undeniable. A child must see themselves represented positively in order to be motivated, inspired and uplifted. As a teacher with an accent local to the South East of England, repeatedly my students in schools in deprived parts of Cumbria and Lancashire, have asked me if:

1) I am Royal

2) I am related to Royalty. (The answer is no in both instances).

The point is, regional stereotypes are powerfully embedded in the psyche of our young.

We have the platform to be pioneers of progress. Do we have the heart