Lisa Bischoff – Taking Back Control

Abstract

How is the European Union, and how is the political integration project represented in British Eurosceptic novels? The third chapter deals with the political form of the EU, its stage of integration, institutional set up, decision-making processes and policies as depicted in Eurosceptic fiction. While most of the novels represent the EU as a supranational, bureaucratic and supposedly undemocratic, illiberal system of governance, some novels extrapolate and carry this idea to a next level by inventing an EU which is clearly dys-EUtopian as it controls and surveils its citizens in a quasi-totalitarian manner. To what extent do those depictions mirror Eurosceptic fears? How is European integration perceived to relate to Britain’s political traditions (e.g. parliamentary sovereignty)? To answer these questions, the chapter also looks at the diverse forms and modes of resistance represented in the novels as they clearly serve as the focal point of the narratives. The resistances’ rallying cries reflect those anti-EU arguments (e.g. anti-federalism, anti-regulation) which have long figured in the debates about the British EU membership in politics and society. Discussions about Britain’s membership appear to be inseparable from evocations of nation, sovereignty and the British people. The fictitious resistance groups thereby also draw from the vivid and emotional language of Eurosceptics (e.g. “faceless bureaucrat”, “superstate”), constructing the EU as Britain’s political, dys-EUtopian Other.