“Isolation, Loneliness, Solitude: The COVID-19 Pandemic Has Brought Us Too Close Together”

New Article in Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies

Access a copy of the article here: https://www.utpjournals.press/eprint/PRDBGJWIR6HXXWS4QTGN/full

In this article, I attribute the isolation and loneliness that are central conditions experienced by many people in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic to a politics and law of movement, the ends of which are not simply political-economic or bio-political, but also ethical-existential, to the extent that the very space of separation is destroyed. Through a reading of Hannah Arendt on tyranny and totalitarian governance, I assert the importance of solitude as what needs to be reclaimed for there to be any ethical sense of the common and any political sense of solidarity.

Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, Number 41. Fall 2020 Special Issue on “Our COVID Conjuncture: Critical Essays on the Pandemic.” Guest Editors: Penelope Ironstone and Greg Bird

Cover Image: Theatre sign: “Wash your hands love each other”, photographed by Joshua Reddekopp (@joshuaryanphoto; Joshuareddekopp.com). Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/vsywM-roPSE.