The Crisis of Liberal Democracy in Contemporary Novels

or The Continuation of History

Leander Møller Gøttcke

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040349502
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Modern Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

This book explores how contemporary novels reflect a profound shift in Western culture, from the political optimism of the post-Cold War era to growing fears about the future of liberal democracy. Analysing four major works – Karl Ove Knausgård's My Struggle series, Zadie Smith's White Teeth, Boualem Sansal's 2084 and Michel Houellebecq's Submission – it shows how these novels illuminate current social discontents and engages the anxieties of our time. Where the so-called "end-of-history" narrative once promised a triumphant liberal democracy, novelistic fiction today reflects a more ominous outlook: progressives are haunted by dystopian visions of democratic decline, while reactionaries fear cultural displacement and yearn for a lost Golden Age. Bridging literary analysis and political theory, the book offers new perspectives on how literature engages with and challenges contemporary political narratives, making it a vital resource for those interested in the intersection of politics and literature.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsement
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: The Sense of an Ending
• 1 Liberal Democracy and the Modern Novel
• 2 Liberal Democracy and Its Discontents: Karl Ove Knausgård’s Struggle at the End of History
• 3 The End and Continuation of History: Zadie Smith’s Critique of Francis Fukuyama in White Teeth
• 4 The Reactionary Dystopia: Boualem Sansal’s 2084 vis-à-vis George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four
• 5 The Decline and Fall of Liberal Democracy: Michel Houellebecq’s Submission as Satire
• Conclusion: Imaginary Futures and Political Realities
• Index