Post-Brexit Britain and Socioeconomic Distress in Ali Smith’s Autumn

Abstract

Ali Smith’s novel “Autumn” (2016) is a Brexlit novel that depicts aspects of English society associated with a landmark in British history, the 2016 referendum that decided its exit from the EU. The article focuses on socioeconomic aspects touched upon by Smith, including the social division among communities and the communitarian disunity, financial and economic hardship, bureaucratic insensitiveness, the issue of immigration, as well as the public social submissiveness or protest while facing all of these plights. Even though these may not be the central themes of Smith’s novel, the depiction of the ‘hard times’ of people living during a time of change, uncertainty, division, chaos and mixed feelings emerges as an equally important concern, as the current paper aims to explore.