This article proposes that, in their different ways, the Arab uprisings and the pandemic of the corona virus direct our attention to the same question, this being: who cares? It revolves this question with respect to new social alignments that the pandemic has drawn attention to, with particular attention to the British context, and with respect to a critique of Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition. The article argues that while Arendt presents a hierarchical understanding of labour and work in relation to political performance, the pandemic has served to re-evaluate key labour in a context of what may be termed civil and uncivil classes. It further explores viral dynamics in colonial and postcolonial terms, especially with reference to Indian postcolonial Novels: Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance and Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. The readings of these novels show how they engage with the civil and uncivil in class terms.
Rooney, C. (2021). Civil and Uncivil Classes in the Light of the Pandemic: Postcolonial Perspectives on the Question of Who Cares. Cairo Studies in English, 2021(2), 30-48. doi: 10.21608/cse.2022.66176.1103
MLA
Caroline Rooney. "Civil and Uncivil Classes in the Light of the Pandemic: Postcolonial Perspectives on the Question of Who Cares", Cairo Studies in English, 2021, 2, 2021, 30-48. doi: 10.21608/cse.2022.66176.1103
HARVARD
Rooney, C. (2021). 'Civil and Uncivil Classes in the Light of the Pandemic: Postcolonial Perspectives on the Question of Who Cares', Cairo Studies in English, 2021(2), pp. 30-48. doi: 10.21608/cse.2022.66176.1103
VANCOUVER
Rooney, C. Civil and Uncivil Classes in the Light of the Pandemic: Postcolonial Perspectives on the Question of Who Cares. Cairo Studies in English, 2021; 2021(2): 30-48. doi: 10.21608/cse.2022.66176.1103
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