Writing Solidarity in Brexit London: Exclusions and Alliances in Mohsin Hamid's 'Exit West' and Aminatta Forna's 'Happiness'

Abstract

[eng] This article explores the ways in which solidarity and exclusion are represented in two novels published in Britain shortly after the Brexit referendum: Exit West (2017) by Mohsin Hamid and Happiness (2018) by Aminatta Forna. Although their plots do not explicitly address Brexit, both narratives delve into the experiences of migrants in a London characterised by the exclusion of non-British communities – a London which can be easily recognised as that of the 2010s – while at the same time they visibilise the networks and alliances which are created as strategies of resistance against it. The article relies on twenty-firstcentury theorisations of solidarity such as those by Sally J. Scholz (2008), David Featherstone (2012) or Rubén A. GaztambideFernández (2012) in order to examine the novels’ depiction of the new solidary relations created and their potential for social transformation, while also reflecting on the transformative force of literature as a world-changing cultural practice.