Narratives of Separation

Literary Depictions of Brexit Through the Divorce Metaphor

Abstract

Throughout English history, major political and social ruptures have been framed through the metaphor of divorce. This metaphor has gained renewed prominence in representations of Brexit, circulating in journalistic and bureaucratic discourse (Buckledee 2018; Koller et al, 2019) as well as in fiction and television. Literary narratives often portray Brexit as a marital breakdown marked by loss, betrayal, and identity renegotiation, foregrounding its psychological and cultural dimensions beyond political or economic analysis (Milizia and Spinzi 2020). By examining texts such as Jonathan Coe’s Middle England (2019) and Nick Hornby’s State of the Union: A Marriage in Ten Parts (2019), this research explores how the divorce metaphor conveys the emotional and social consequences of the UK’s separation from the EU. It argues that these works participate in a broader literary tradition that uses intimate relationships to articulate national crises and historical turning points (Eaglestone 2018; Shaw 2021).