ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Alex Mangold employs Žižek’s concept of the “short circuit” to analyze recent cultural and political events in Wales and in the United Kingdom. In keeping with Žižek’s idea that short-circuit reading can lead to “insights which completely shatter and undermine our common preconceptions,” the chapter presents austerity, Brexit, and Covid as performative categories that have led to a new understanding of Welsh politics and identity. Mangold identifies Wales as an example of a performative “third space” that illustrates a parallax gap between a socially unjust United Kingdom and an independent, more sustainable, and decidedly global Wales.
