Brexit literature’s present absentees : Triangulating Brexit, anti-Semitism, and the Palestinian crisis

Moore, L. (2020) Brexit literature’s present absentees : Triangulating Brexit, anti-Semitism, and the Palestinian crisis. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 56 (5). pp. 621-635. ISSN 1744-9855

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Abstract

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.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Journal of Postcolonial Writing
Additional Information:
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
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1200/1208
Subjects:
?? israelliterature and literary theory ??
ID Code:
149570
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
01 Dec 2020 17:10
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
23 Mar 2024 00:59