Chapter 9 Experiencing Global Wealth in London: Authentic Voice in Attack the Block and The Secret Service: Kingsman
In: London post-2010 in British Literature and CultureSearch for other papers by Jonatan Jalle Steller in
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The article argues that both the sci-fi film Attack the Block (2011) and the graphic novel The Secret Service: Kingsman (2014) are narratives of contact between working-class protagonists and figurations of global wealth in London. Space and authentic voice provide useful analytical tools in that they bring to light how young people with limited financial resources manage to overcome denied agency. The gang around Attack’s protagonist Moses, for example, finds acceptance in their housing-estate surroundings, catalysed by alien creatures who use free-market tactics to occupy a new breeding ground. Secret Service, on the other hand, depicts Eggsy’s escape from a tower block: taking on a new gentleman role allows him to adapt to a binary of low-income and black-tie environments. Both narratives show London as a globalising city with a strong influx of the super-rich, i.e. people with nearly unlimited financial resources unable to connect to lower social strata.