ABSTRACT

This paper is an exploration into the phenomenon of Brexit, and how to approach it from the perspective of the critical humanities. Following calls by Edward Said and Lawrence Grossberg to cross the border between political science and cultural studies, this paper takes Karen Barad’s agential realist approach to rethinking responsibility as response-ability and diffractively reads it alongside the performances and practices of Brexit, as well as the political theory of Hanna Pitkin and Lisa Disch. This new approach is developed through a close analysis of the debates held in the House of Commons surrounding the deferred ‘meaningful vote’ on the Brexit withdrawal agreement. The paper is organised into three parts, corresponding to a representative’s responsibility on the: (1) local, (2) national, and (3) party level. As the deferred ‘meaningful vote’ did not happen, it will not be remembered as a landmark in the Brexit saga. This paper argues that precisely because of its unrealised nature, the deferred vote offers a potential space of resistance, contestation and transformation. The goal is to demonstrate that a greater understanding of the causes and consequences of Brexit can be achieved through the tools of the critical humanities, but that these tools can in turn be sharpened and reinvigorated as a result of said analysis.

摘要

本文探讨了英国脱欧现象，以及如何从批判性人文科学的角度来解决这一问题。在爱德华·赛义德（Edward Said）和劳伦斯·格罗斯伯格（Lawrence Grossberg）呼吁跨越政治科学与文化研究之间的界限之后，本文采用了卡伦·巴拉德（Karen Barad）的代理现实主义方法，将责任重新视为响应能力并与英国退欧的表现和做法以及汉娜·皮特金（Hanna Pitkin）和丽莎·迪奇（Lisa Disch）的政治理论一起进行了艰难的解读。通过对下议院围绕围绕英国退欧退出协议的延期“有意义的投票”进行的辩论的仔细分析，开发出了这种新方法。该文件分为三个部分，分别对应于代表在以下方面的职责：（1）地方，（2）国家和（3）政党级别。由于推迟的``有意义的投票''没有发生，因此不会被记住为英国退欧传奇的里程碑。本文认为，正是由于其未实现的性质，推迟投票才提供了潜在的抵抗，竞争和变革的空间。