Literature and Lifeworlds: Szabo, Schutz, Habermas

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?