Quarantäne-Kultur

After the Corona pandemic, two narratives are now dominant: in general discourse, a desire to forget about it, and in populist discourse, a politicization of the assessment of the state's handling of Covid-19 as a symptom of alleged systemic failure. This book aims to counteract the amnesia of cultural memory regarding the reality of the pandemic: it reconstructs the emotional landscapes of that time through examples of autofictional literature, Hollywood blockbusters like "Barbie," and German television formats such as "Tatort." Contrary to the assumption that we quickly returned to the old normal, significant shifts in the domains of freedom, love, aging, and death can be observed, indicating a new normality: destructive moments of Western freedom mania are problematized, the myth of romantic love as a form of domination is challenged, and there is a new acceptance of aging and a reintegration of death into life.