Weaned living – Literature about living in the pandemic

Abstract

The lockdown in March 2020 hybridizes living spaces. The architectural boundaries of the home are softened through digitization. Urbanization, economic and ecological changes, demographic shifts, and migration have demanded reflection on housing, particularly in cities, within various fields of science and art, including questions about the design of appropriate living spaces. Perhaps the most radical transformation of living spaces in the modern era can be seen in the 19th century in Europe, as industrialization and immigration increased in cities. Against the backdrop of bourgeois ideals of the 19th century, contemporary literature reflects on living conditions during the pandemic after March 2020. In the hermetically sealed lockdown of digitization, literature also reexamines (political) communication between privacy and public space, as seen in ELFRIEDE JELINEK's play Lärm. Blindes sehen. Blinde sehen. Additionally, in this con-text, the living space, as exemplified in MARICA BODROŽIĆ'S Pantherzeit, becomes a projection surface for the self, which must turn its gaze inward in contrast to the social and public space. At times, a critical and somewhat questionable esoteric self-elevation can be observed, an attempt to give meaning to the crises of the present, but also an attempt to aesthetically experience human living conditions during the crisis.