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FINAL JM - ACSUS-Cultures of Populism - 7 John Masterson - Pre-Final MAW Copyedit (2).pdf (376.11 kB)

“Don’t tell me this isn’t relevant all over again in its brand new same old way”: imagination, agitation, and raging against the machine in Ali Smith’s Spring

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 07:12 authored by John MastersonJohn Masterson
This paper explores the third novel in Ali Smith’s seasonal quartet, Spring. Using Achille Mbembe’s Necropolitics as a conceptual frame, I analyze Smith’s rendering of a Britain grappling with Brexit in times of transnational populism. As with Autumn and Winter, Smith’s prose is saturated with intertextual borrowings from pop and “high” culture, also interrogating the links between “nanoracism” and the “immunity and community” knot (Dillet). This paper reads Spring alongside Smith’s contribution to and advocacy of the Refugee Tales project regarding the diverse discourses surrounding migration, xenophobia, and indefinite detention. Smith’s writing traces the darkness of our populist present with its rhetorical and material violence, as well as the possibilities for creative response and resistance. I argue that her seasonal quartet to date and her work with Refugee Tales aesthetically and ethically defend the principle that human dignity, both individual and collective, rests on the ability to tell stories.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Safundi

ISSN

1753-3171

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Issue

3

Volume

21

Page range

355-372

Department affiliated with

  • English Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2020-06-08

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2022-01-30

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2020-06-09

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