British Intellectuals and Blairism: Counter-Hegemonic Voices during Tony Blair’s Premiership

Abstract

This study looks into the subversive cultural production of British intellectuals against the government of Tony Blair. My dissertation explores how the writers, thinkers and cultural figures of the time who openly reacted against the government of Margaret Thatcher and her controversial cuts in public services, such as education and culture, gradually experienced disenchantment with the politics of the newly elected Labour leader. The messianic politician, popularly acclaimed by the masses in 1997, soon became the target of left-wing intellectuals who criticised his deconstruction of socialist values and the old principles of the Labour Party. The analysis of these socio-cultural changes takes place through the study of a corpus of textual and cultural constructs produced by the most significant intellectuals of the time, who publicly denounced Blair‘s government.