Deindustrialisation, disintegration and the call for renewal in Anthony Cartwright’s The Cut

Yazgı C.

17th International IDEA Conference, Studies in English, Elazığ, Türkiye, 7 - 09 Mayıs 2025, ss.55, (Özet Bildiri)

  • Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Özet Bildiri
  • Basıldığı Şehir: Elazığ
  • Basıldığı Ülke: Türkiye
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.55
  • Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Anthony Cartwright’s novel The Cut (2017) can be situated within the broader tradition of
British industrial and post-industrial literature as it addresses contemporary anxieties about
economic disenfranchisement and cultural alienation. It offers a gripping narrative on the socio-
political and economic ramifications of deindustrialisation in post-Brexit Britain. As
deindustrialisation gradually encroaches upon Britain’s industrial heartland, it takes a terrible
toll on individuals, industrial communities, and the nation at large. In this regard, this paper
explores how the novel articulates the lived experience of deindustrialization and how
Cartwright’s novel employs the microcosm of the West Midlands town Dudley to explore the
collapse of traditional British industries and the subsequent disintegration of working-class
identity, community, and national belonging. It will be shown that the juxtaposition of the
personal stories of the working-class ex-boxer Cairo Jukes and the middle-class documentary
filmmaker Grace Trevithick becomes central to The Cut’s interrogation of that disintegration.
Apart from portraying the disintegration itself, Cartwright draws attention to the deepening
chasm between the political elite and the marginalised working class, which is a theme
emblematic of post-Brexit disillusionment. Through Cartwright’s employment of dialect and
the symbolism of ‘the cut’ — both a physical scar and a metaphor for societal division — The
Cut seeks to expose the toll of deindustrialisation. However, as will be discussed, it ultimately
functions as a vital literary intervention to urge a re-evaluation of the social contract in this era
of economic and cultural upheaval.
Keywords: deindustrialisation, post-Brexit, identity, class, marginalisation