How the Pandemic Affected Our Approach to Reading and Interpretation of Books

English scholars Ben Davies and Christina Lupton, in their article “How the Pandemic Affected Our Approach to Reading and Interpretation of Books,” examine how the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped readers’ engagement with literature. Using literary analysis combined with qualitative interviews conducted in Denmark and England, they demonstrate that readers actively reinterpret texts based on their lived experiences. For example, Jane Eyre (Brontë, 1847) became fraught for some readers during lockdown; one interviewee deliberately avoided rereading the novel because its depiction of the protagonist’s confinement amid a cholera epidemic intensified feelings of isolation and vulnerability. This example illustrates how readers project their personal realities onto texts, transforming the meaning of established narratives. Scenes of homeschooling also gained new relevance, as readers connected these moments to their own experiences with virtual education during the pandemic. This dynamic underscores storytelling as a dialogic process where contemporary realities continuously reshape literary interpretation.

Davies and Lupton further show how the pandemic prompted shifts in the cultural significance of particular works. Albert Camus’s The Plague (1947) saw a notable resurgence, as its portrayal of a town battling a deadly virus resonated deeply with readers living through COVID-19. Yet, many also engaged with the novel’s allegorical dimension, recognizing its commentary on the Nazi occupation of France rather than a straightforward pandemic narrative. Concurrently, contemporary fiction such as Sally Rooney’s novels gained importance by articulating the emotional challenges faced by couples separated by social restrictions. Lengthy novels provided psychological refuge and temporal immersion during periods of uncertainty. Overall, the study highlights storytelling as a fluid exchange between text and reader, where literature acquires new meanings in response to historical and personal upheavals.