Metamodernism and the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic

Abstract

Metamodernism is understood as the dominant cultural logic of the 21st century. Metamodernism’s breadth and complexity, as well as its theory’s advocacy for contemporaneity, invite for consideration whether the notion could address the most recent global events and the crises after 2020. Therefore, this study designates and explains the five key concepts of metamodernism – metaxy, abstraction, reconstruction, historicity, and a structure of feeling – and uses them to discuss the current state of affairs, the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. The study evaluates the interpretative and discursive potentials of metamodernism, finding that the crisis we now live in can be well-conceptualised from the metamodern perspective, yet at the same time the enormous impact of the crisis brings the usual metamodern perspectives into question and puts the key concepts to test.

Keywords

• metamodernism
• historicity
• structure of feeling
• metaxy
• abstraction
• reconstruction
• the coronavirus (covid-19) crisis
• pandemic