Lockdown, literature, and online culture: opportunities and challenges. Insights from the West Midlands.

Abstract

This article – originating from a paper presented at the Conference “Pandemic Perspectives 2021: Reflections on the Post-Covid World” – has a twofold aim. Firstly, it seeks to identify and discuss the ways in which readers, writers, and cultural organisations have used digital platforms to re-create literary practices throughout the pandemic. Here, literary practices encompass attendance at festival events, the fact of monitoring one’s reading progress and reflecting on one’s reading habits, and the various interactions between readers, authors, and editors. Secondly, and relatedly, the present article endeavours to point out the opportunities and challenges arising from our new ways of engaging with literature and culture. As a Doctoral Researcher working in close collaboration with the Birmingham-based literature development agency Writing West Midlands, the data and textual evidence I provide mainly proceed from research carried out (online) in the West Midlands.

Keywords

• covid-19, lockdown, literary practice, west midlands