Harmonie ist eine Strategie : Gattungs- und Formwissen in Ali Smiths "Brexit-Roman" Autumn (2016)

Abstract

Abstract

en Ali Smith’s novel Autumn (2016) immediately acquired near-canonical status in academic discussions of ‘BrexLit’, i.e., literary responses to the 2016 British referendum on leaving the European Union. This chapter considers the functions of Autumn’s self-conscious references to the Victorian genre of the ‘Condition of England’ novel. It argues that the older genre’s central premise – the idea that England is divided into ‘two nations’ – is explored in Autumn as a potential pattern for making sense of the current political situation. However, Smith dismisses the standard solutions offered by that genre’s conventions, especially the dialogue between the divided ‘cultures’ within the nation, as model responses. In the process, ‘genre knowledge’ (Gattungswissen) and ‘form knowledge’ (Formwissen) are exposed as conventions disappointing the hopes placed in them. Still, the function of literature and art as repositories of historical models for problem solving is affirmed: the post-referendum ‘Remainers’ are presented as deeply disorientated, and the novel suggests that a cure for their despair may be found in a ‘shared’, cosmopolitan and European archive, rather than in an isolationist national tradition.