'Taking Back Control' of the Nation and Its History?: Contemporary Fiction's Engagement with Nostalgia in Brexit Britain

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. The present monograph provides the first comprehensive critical analysis of this recent ubiquity of nostalgia from a British Cultural Studies perspective. Central to its newly developed narratological approach is the concept of the contemporary 'master narrative of nostalgia', the prevailing means of national self-assertion in Brexit Britain through which the dominant notions of British history and national identity are currently constructed. 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.

Dennis Henneböhl received his PhD from Paderborn University and is now working as a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in English Literature and Culture at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. Among his key research areas are nostalgia, Brexit Britain, historical fiction, political rhetoric, the interactions between science and theatre during the Victorian era, British popular culture, and contemporary (Northern) Irish literature.