The boring apocalypse: The representation of flat affects in contemporary British pandemic novels

Abstract

In his 2021 opinion article in The New York Times, Adam Grant called the COVID-19 pandemic the ‘boring apocalypse’. Indeed, while pre-pandemic imaginaries of global pandemics tended to focus on spectacular killer viruses, for many people in the Global North, the challenge of the pandemic was, if not boredom, then a sense of recurring routine. Although the pandemic also created strong affects like fear and anger, this article will look at the ‘flat affects’ that grew out of the sense of stasis. The theoretical framework of the article is based on the thinking of Lauren Berlant. My theoretical reflection is followed by an analysis of three British novels written during the pandemic: Sarah Moss’ The Fell, Sarah Hall’s Burntcoat and Clare Pollard’s Delphi. I will, above all, focus on the representations of affective responses to the routines of the pandemic in the often overlooked private sphere.