Sustojęs gyvenimas: pandemija ir afektyvieji sutrikimai

Abstract

The phrase “total lockdown” in the first part of the title signifies a universal existential situation, in which we found ourselves during the pandemic and in which we partially live until now, mainly caused by the negation of life as a vital force (vita activa). The second part of the title – “the pandemic and its affective disorders” – highlights the affective disbalance that manifests itself not only on a personal, but also on a more universal – social and political – level. The paper explores what affects, feelings, sensations, and experiences have been spread, how we “contract” them, as well as how (and whether) we deal with them. Even though the research question of the paper might look rather simple at first: how to speak about the (affective) experiences of the pandemic, it becomes more complex when we consider the fact that affect resists verbalization and signification. This paper looks at the pandemic through the lens of the interplay between the material conditions and outcomes of the pandemic and the discursive formations that both structure and are structured by them. Particular attention is paid to the inevitable tension between the hegemonic discourse on/of the pandemic, which encapsulates and homogenizes a broad spectrum of affective responses to the “total lockdown” and the affective drama happening behind the “smokescreen” of this discourse. On the one hand, the paper raises the question of how to articulate this drama and find a balance between particular experiences and the commonality of these experiences. On the other hand, the paper focuses on the narratives and techniques that transgress beyond the insensitive to the outcomes of the pandemic discourse.