lectures

Literature and Lifeworlds: Szabo, Schutz, Habermas

Oxford University

October 29

Event linkcalender

The Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation Programme presents the ‘Fiction and Other Minds’ Michaelmas Term 2025 Seminar.

The idea of the lifeworld seems especially well-suited to capturing the sense of life as it is lived. After looking at theories of the lifeworld in Schutz and Habermas, I turn to The Door, a prize-winning novel by Magda Szabo about the ties of love, anger, and misunderstanding that bind a novelist and her housekeeper. How might Szabo’s novel enrich existing theories of everyday life? And how are intellectuals seen by those who cook their meals and sweep their floors?