Vol. 30 No. 3 (2021): Literature on Brexit and other socio-political crises of contemporary Europe
Literature on Brexit and other socio-political crises of contemporary Europe

In 2016, Great Britain held a national referendum on whether it should remain in or leave the European Union. A few year later, notwithstanding the decision’s legal footing, the British Isles have remained in a state of impasse, perhaps even chaos. Over the period, the United Kingdom’s credibility and prestige have dramatically decreased, which has disrupted certain sectors of the economy as well as enhanced the centrifugal forces of separatism. Furthermore, it has had wide ramifications for Europe, inflicting upon it an acute illness of systemic nature. On top of that, people in the Isles and on the continent have had to struggle with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is no doubt that various troubles, calamities and recent political crises have taken a heavy toll on the collective frame of mind.         

Since literature is a good barometer of the overall mood, it is our intent to devote the upcoming issue of the Porównania journal to presenting some watersheds as well as turning points in the most recent history of British and other European societies. Brexit, in this regard, is hardly a panacea for the ills of the modern world, but rather a trigger that has turned ‘the familiar realm’ into a tailspin. With the above in mind, we would like to invite scholars, whose field of expertise is literary and comparative studies, to participate in a debate on the phenomenon of Brexit, and its widespread consequences. The pressing question here would be whether the British version of ‘divorce’ should not be read beyond a limited, geopolitical locality. Perhaps, after all, it is a symbolic act that reflects processes of much broader meaning, observable not only in the United Kingdom, but also in other European countries as well as in the United States.

In terms of its implosive potential, Brexit has definitely contributed to prompting a correlated discussion over such thematic areas as: expansion of national/ist populisms, particularly with respect to recent migration waves; reoccurring problem of cultural and political divisions within given societies, along with the inward-bound processes of disruptive identity formation; finally, dramatic conflicts between an embedded value system and its alternative [destabilizing] counterparts. These are just a few notions reflected in contemporary literature. How have they been examined by writers in the British Isles, and how have they been touched upon by other European literary cultures? Were there any earlier prefigurations of the current crisis? In the wake of national/ist egoisms and the ‘policy of division/decomposition’, it would be also vital to learn who falls victim to such circumstances in the first place, and to whom we, as humanists, should show empathy and give support.  Should literature intervene by presenting an anti-crisis plan/agenda, or should it merely diagnose a crisis as silhouetting against the horizon? Finally, has the specter of Brexit found its way into Polish prose, and if so, then what shape has it taken?

We predict that such a juxtaposition of various cultural and literary contexts shall aid not only in outlining a wide horizon of critical thought, but also in sparking a fascinating discussion. It would be particularly valuable to develop an inter-cultural perspective, whose illuminating benefits transcend the humanities as such. Scholars interested in the aforementioned thematic areas are asked to submit abstracts of around 200 words, along with proposed titles of their articles. The special issue of Porównania will be published in Polish and English so everyone is welcome to submit either language version of his/her essay.

Articles

Ryszard Bartnik, Leszek Drong, Małgorzata Zduniak-Wiktorowicz
21-39
The Crooked Mirrors of the Crisis? Brexit-Related Socio-Political Conflicts and Divisions in Contemporary British and Irish Fiction
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.2
PDF (Język Polski)
Frank Ferguson
41-54
Northern Soulscapes: Writing through Brexit in the work of Gerald Dawe, Angela Graham and Dara McAnulty
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.3
PDF
Ryszard Bartnik
55-76
From Unparalleled “Greatness” to Predictable Insularity. A Composite Sketch of “Warped Britishness” as Drawn in Selected Works of Contemporary English Fiction
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.4
PDF
Ewa Kębłowska-Ławniczak
77-92
Brexit on Stage: Two Verbatim Projects in Progress
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.5
PDF
Bożena Kucała
93-106
Under Irish and Foreign Skies: Home, Migration and Regrexit
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.6
PDF
Jeremy Pomeroy
107-118
Private Experience and Public-Spirited Critique: Brexit-Era Britain in the Recent Poetry of Vidyan Ravinthiran and Nicholas Hagger
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.7
PDF
Michal Lachman
119-135
Travelling Europe, Travelling through Crisis: Disintegrated Journeys in Dorota Masłowska’s A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians and Zinnie Harris’s How To Hold Your Breath
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.8
PDF
Tomasz Dobrogoszcz
137-154
Are We In This Together?: The Polarisation of the British Society and the Marginalisation of Otherness in Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.9
PDF
Wojciech Klepuszewski
155-166
"Some Corner of a Foreign Field That Is [Not] For Ever England”: Brexit and Poetry
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.10
PDF
Justyna Jajszczok
167-177
The Last Day and Brexit: Delusions of Future Past
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.11
PDF
Marta Frątczak-Dąbrowska, Joanna Jarząb-Napierała
179-189
The Crisis of Brexit and Other Socio-Cultural Aspects of Silencing the Past through the Example of Anna Burns’ Milkman
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.12
PDF
Liliana Sikorska
191-207
In the Labyrinth of Forgetfulness: Charley Grainger’s Joycean Journey in Christine Dwyer Hickey’s Cold Eye of Heaven
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.13
PDF
Leszek Drong
209-227
Borderland Anxieties: Brexit, Upper Silesia and Irish Partitions in Recent Novels by Glenn Patterson and Szczepan Twardoch
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.14
PDF
Hanna Gosk
229-247
Swan-Eaters: Relative Otherness in the Experience of the Polish Economic Migration to Great Britain After 2004
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.15
PDF (Język Polski)
Małgorzata Zduniak-Wiktorowicz
251-271
On Value Systems, Commitment and Explaining Poland in Crisis to Germans by Polish-German Writers from Berlin: Brygida Helbig-Mischewski and Emilia Smechowski
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.16
PDF (Język Polski)
Dominika Anna Gortych
273-289
Radicalisation Tinted by Nationalism or How to Turn a Counterrevolutionary Into a Reactionary: Ingo Schulze's Die rechtschaffenen Mörder (The Righteous Murderers) (2020)
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.17
PDF (Deutsch)
Małgorzata Rygielska
291-309
‘BrexLit’ in Italian for Children and Adults Rosie e gli scoiattoli di St. James and La mia Londra by Simonetta Agnello Hornby
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.18
PDF (Język Polski)
Karol Karp
311-324
Brexit in Italian Contemporary Literature: Città irreale (Unreal city) by Cristina Marconi, Brexit Blues (Brexit Blues) by Marco Varvello and La mia Brexit (My Brexit) by Francesco De Carlo
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.19
PDF (Język Polski)
Krzysztof Okoński
325-344
Schiller Wearing a Mask: The Literature of German-Speaking Countries vs. the sars-cov-2 Pandemic
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.20
PDF (Język Polski)
Sylwia Nowak-Bajcar
345-366
The Languages of the Crisis: Pathographies in the Latest Serbian Literature
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.21
PDF (Język Polski)
Marcin Filipowicz
367-379
Viral Hell: Central-European Dystopian Visions of Social Media
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.22
PDF (Język Polski)
Marcin Czardybon
381-394
On the Spirit (of Brexit): With Additional Remarks on the Thymotic Stimulation of the Nation in the Latest Polish Literature
https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2021.3.23
PDF (Język Polski)