More than a year on since Britain voted to leave the European Union, it is hard to tell what kind of mood saturates everyday life: is it a feeling of uncertainty; is it hope, indifference? For Ben Highmore, writing in the postscript to his latest book, Cultural Feelings: Mood, Mediation, and Cultural Politics, the lead-up to the plebiscite as well as its aftermath witnessed a cacophony of feelings and emotions ranging from the most extreme expressions of hate to the most generous eruptions of camaraderie. The dominant mood, however, that seems to prevail is one of cynicism, a “cultural form that is most suited to a culture that seeks to refute our collective condition and promote a form of alienated individualism” (162). It is precisely against this pattern of feeling that Highmore presents his non-cynical remooding of British postwar history.
Marshalling an impressive range of sources from film and...
