Pandemic and the new (?) structure of feeling: A reflection based on Kim Stanley Robinson and Raymond Williams

Abstract

This paper is part of a broader research and seeks to understand critical assessments of artistic production and broader societal movements in the face of the catastrophe represented by the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. To that end, this essay reflects on the figuration of catastrophe and the strategies that humanity has forged (desired and executed) to deal with it in art and in criticism. The focus is on the pandemic that spread across the world in early 2020 and its impacts on the critical reflection by Kim Stanley Robinson, an American science fiction writer whose comments on the pandemic are analyzed here. The theoretical support of the discussion is based on the concept of structure of feeling, by Raymond Williams, as well as on his discussion of science fiction, drawing consequences from the perspective of Ailton Krenak’s indigenous epistemology as well, including data analysis from pandemic management around the world (such as the number of vaccines applied in different countries). This study considers that science fiction provides a privileged space for the elaboration of humanity’s fears and hopes in the face of catastrophe, with great potential for the production of knowledge.