Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Postcolonial Writing on 23/09/2020, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17449855.2020.1820666
Accepted author manuscript, 238 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Brexit literature’s present absentees
T2 - Triangulating Brexit, anti-Semitism, and the Palestinian crisis
AU - Moore, L.
N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Postcolonial Writing on 23/09/2020, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17449855.2020.1820666
PY - 2020/9/30
Y1 - 2020/9/30
N2 - This article addresses a blind spot in Brexit literary criticism: Britain’s relationship to the Middle East, particularly its historic responsibility for the plight of Palestinians. Although fiction that directly engages both Brexit and the Israeli–Palestinian crisis has not yet appeared, oblique connections can be illuminated. Shared conceptual fields, albeit ones only partially brought into view in contemporary British fiction, emerge from intersecting historical experiences. The article considers a range of recent literary texts, with an emphasis on A Stranger City (2019) by British Jewish author Linda Grant and Fractured Destinies: A Novel (2018) by British Palestinian author Raba’i al-Madhoun. When viewed in a certain light, Brexit motifs of enclosure, displacement, and propinquity limn the Palestinian crisis as well as the spectre of anti-Semitism, revealing Britain’s role in the shaping of the modern Middle East as part of contemporary British literature’s political unconscious.
AB - This article addresses a blind spot in Brexit literary criticism: Britain’s relationship to the Middle East, particularly its historic responsibility for the plight of Palestinians. Although fiction that directly engages both Brexit and the Israeli–Palestinian crisis has not yet appeared, oblique connections can be illuminated. Shared conceptual fields, albeit ones only partially brought into view in contemporary British fiction, emerge from intersecting historical experiences. The article considers a range of recent literary texts, with an emphasis on A Stranger City (2019) by British Jewish author Linda Grant and Fractured Destinies: A Novel (2018) by British Palestinian author Raba’i al-Madhoun. When viewed in a certain light, Brexit motifs of enclosure, displacement, and propinquity limn the Palestinian crisis as well as the spectre of anti-Semitism, revealing Britain’s role in the shaping of the modern Middle East as part of contemporary British literature’s political unconscious.
KW - anti-Semitism
KW - Balfour
KW - Brexit
KW - displacement
KW - Middle East
KW - Palestine/Israel
U2 - 10.1080/17449855.2020.1820666
DO - 10.1080/17449855.2020.1820666
M3 - Journal article
VL - 56
SP - 621
EP - 635
JO - Journal of Postcolonial Writing
JF - Journal of Postcolonial Writing
SN - 1744-9855
IS - 5
ER -