War at Home

Eclipse of Conflict and Identity Trenches in Leavitt and Coe

Abstract

This paper provides a study of Middle England (2018) by Jonathan Coe and Shelter in Place (2020) by David Leavitt, two novels respectively focused on Brexit and Trump’s election. By combining the tools of both literary theory and sociology, the examination points out the symptoms of the decline of Western politics, such as the short-circuit of verbal communication and the growth of rhetoric of victimization. In the obsessive search for reassurance, the citizens of a collapsing democracy rely on two options: holing up into cramped bubbles, or colliding with the alterity they fear, trying to annihilate it.