Graham Swift's Waterland and the Ideology of Efficiency

This essay traces the emergence of efficiency as a significant ideology in Graham Swift's Waterland (1983). By dramatizing the process of engineering in the reclamation of water and the expansion of a business empire, Swift demonstrates that the Atkinsons were motivated by the pursuit of efficient outcomes rather than the quest for vulgar profit. This focus on efficiency foregrounds a pattern of unintended consequences, accounts for the increasing commodification of human beings, and contributes to a dialectical understanding of history. Last Orders (1996) also receives some attention.