Elemental immanence and anaesthetic : Brexit, floodedness and ecoaesthetics

Abstract

This dissertation attempts to unfold a transdisciplinary discussion which weaves together the issues of Brexit, post-apocalyptic fiction, and the climate crisis of flooding. The intertextual analysis centres on two works of “BrexLit” published in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum in 2016, namely The Wall (2019) by John Lanchester, and The End We Start from (2017) by Megan Hunter. A combination of elemental ecocritical and posthumanist approach is adopted which zeroes in on the motif of border and water which permeates through the two selected texts. The dichotomous conceptuality of the rigid border can be reconceived through the fluid elementality of water, as they are discussed through Deleuze and Guattari’s theory of immanence and Michel Serres’ interpretation of percolation in relation to multiple temporalities. The discussion is contextualised around the theme of immediate and progressive survival on the individual, interactive and generational perspectives. This dissertation is to shed light on the subjective experience of the enmeshment of ecological and political issues in the age of the Anthropocene.