Lara Cox (Université de Cergy-Pontoise)

Abstract

This article examines the manifestations of the national allegory of ‘Britannia’ in the contemporary moment defined by Brexit. The representations of ‘Brexitannia’ in commemorative coins, illustrations to opinion pieces, music videos, and advertising campaigns that have emerged during or since the UK referendum on the EU are argued to reveal forms of women’s agency and/or emancipation used in the name of British nationhood and Brexit. ‘Brexitannia’ reveals both national hurt and healing, and through her agency covers over and heals national wounds that the vote for Brexit has exposed.

Keywords: women’s agency, Brexit, nationhood, hurt, healing

Full text: OAJ_issue8_cox (pdf, 0.9 MB).

DOI:  http://dx.doi.org/10.5456/issn.2050-3679/2020s03

Biographical note 

Lara Cox is a lecturer of English at the University of Cergy-Pontoise, France. She is interested in and has published on the representations of gender in modern and contemporary French, British, and American stand-up, theatre, cinema, and art, and on the transnational exchanges of queer theory and feminist theory.