(De)constructing Identities: The Depiction of Post-Brexit Migration in Years and Years (2019)

Abstract

The BBC TV fictional series, Years and Years (2019), presents how policies of exclusion complicate migratory movements. The series displays controversies in the definition of identities according to the nation-state and family models. The present study investigates the de/construction of identities through a critical perspective of post-Brexit Britain in Years and Years. Drawing from postcolonial scholars like Bhabha or Gilroy, this essay examines the script of the series to shed light upon the construction of (national and migrant) identities and the portrayal of new family models that reshape the nation-state. The methodology followed focuses on the critical and textual analysis of the series. Previous research has documented the value of “postcolonial melancholia” on the construction of identities and on how migration has been adversely affected (Gilroy 52). Lastly, the results of the current study show how the series portrays the complex issue of migration, stressing how (national and migrant) identities are defined within a post-Brexit society.