Out now: Taking Back Control of the Nation and Its History? by Dennis Henneböhl
Dennis Henneböhl’s dissertation on nostalgia in Brexit Britain has just been published by Brill | Fink) as part of the series inter/media. The book shows that nostalgia not only played a decisive role in the outcome of the 2016 Brexit referendum – where it was most pointedly expressed in the infamous slogan ‘Take Back Control’ – but also shapes current British politics, culture, and society at large. Providing a comprehensive critical analysis of this recent ubiquity of nostalgia from a British Cultural Studies perspective, the study develops a new narratological approach positing the existence of a ‘master narrative of nostalgia’ in Brexit Britain. After discussing the master narrative’s most important nostalgic tropes found in recent political rhetoric, the main part of the study then analyses the ways in which contemporary fiction from different media (literature, film, TV) engages and interrelates with the master narrative of nostalgia. The six case studies focus on historical fiction about the Second World War and the end of the British Raj, as well as on novels from the so-called ‘BrexLit’ genre responding to the outcome of the 2016 EU referendum.
For further information, see https://brill.com/display/title/65161.