Towards an uncertain future: Brexit satirised in Ian McEwan’s The Cockroach

Abstract

Ian McEwan’s 2019 novella, The Cockroach, which is considered a product of “brexlit,” is a bitter satire of British politicians’ Brexit project. According to the author, the rising waves of ultranationalism, seasoned with British politicians’ unreasonable populist discourse, drifted Britain out of the European Union. In the novella, McEwan’s chosen medium in criticising Britain’s status quo ante Brexit is satire. Due to its corrective nature, satire tends to repair and/or reform prevailing ills. However, in The Cockroach, McEwan does not intent to correct the troubles brought to Britain by Brexit, which he sees as the manifestation of stark irrationality. Indeed, political humour accompanies McEwan’s exclusive satirical style, for the author was aware of the fact that the British Conservative Party’s political slogan – “Get Brexit done” – had already fulfilled its mission by the time he was writing The Cockroach. Thus, this article follows the fictional route drawn by McEwan in The Cockroach in presenting how the bilateral association of populism and jingoism can darken the future vision of a country whose parliamentary democracy has a history of almost two centuries.