Teorie nella crisi: pandemia e produzione culturale

Abstract

The present essay focuses on the theoretical production that accompanied the appearance of Covid-19 at the beginning of 2020. The study observes the production of articles published on the Italian cultural magazines, and reflects on the dynamics, the interests and the cultural milieu within which ideas are developed, elaborated and, finally, launched in to the public sphere. The article also reflects on the typical elements that compose the act of writing in an era of crisis, and the recursive themes that characterize this writing and the thoughts it expresses over the course of history. Yet, this essay focuses on the specific elements of this social elaboration and provides a list of approaches with different orientations towards time (past, present and future), level involved (base and superstructure) and themes (culture, economy, technologies, social control, etc.). The underlying thesis of the essay, finally, is that writing and producing ideas is a typical ritual of disasters time and that the motives, the fears and the approaches towards present and future conditions present element of communality that are embodied in the individual and in the structural culture of nations.

Culture; History; Disasters; Covid-19; Theory.