Abstract
This thesis is an intervention in the spectacle of the post-pandemic world, challenging the orthodox narratives that have crystallized around the COVID-19 crisis; this interdisciplinary thesis explores the profound impacts on human interactions, societal norms, and cultural expressions during the transition from pandemic to post-pandemic eras. Through a synthesis of personal narratives, cultural analysis, varied interviews, and theoretical frameworks, it traverses the seismic shifts reverberating across social, economic, and creative landscapes globally, with a focus on the United States of America.
This journey, infused with personal stakes and intellectual rigor, reveals the contours of a world in flux, offering a unique vantage point on the vulnerabilities and innovations birthed in the crucible of crisis. This personal engagement reveals the pandemic as a microcosm of broader societal conflicts, where the forces of normalization clash with the undercurrents of creative disruption. The work assesses cultural adaptations and artistic responses, incorporating theoretical lenses like the culture industry, capitalist realism, and revolutionary Situationist thought. It critiques how the pandemic spectacle reinforced existing power structures while proposing pathways for societal healing through narrative engagement and radical imagination.
Moving beyond passive consumption, this thesis challenges the humanities to catalyze real-world change. It foregrounds the necessity of rigorous scholarship integrated with actionable community involvement. By examining cultural artifacts as forms of resistance, it advocates reclaiming human values and desires from the homogenizing forces of capitalist realism, or rather, the current socio-economic climate. Ultimately, the research is a manifesto for the post-pandemic age – a call to transcend boundaries and forge visionary paths toward emancipation, collective self-determination, and a complete narrative overhaul of our current era. In doing so, it advocates for a rejection of the spectacle’s passive consumption and a radical embrace of the possibilities for creating a society that genuinely reflects human values and desires. It charges the humanities to transcend academic boundaries and become a field of action, where theoretical insights ignite real-world transformations towards autonomy and freedom.