An Examination of Bookshelves in the Age of the COVID-19 Pandemic as a “Liminal Space”

Abstract

In the space of a few weeks in 2020, the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus into a global pandemic has changed the way we work, live, interact and communicate with one another. One highly unexpected result of the massive rise in homeworking has been an extraordinary exposure of domestic bookshelves, which in the famous words of Amanda Hess, have become the “quarantine’s hottest accessory” (New York Times, May 1, 2020). Personal bookshelves had hitherto been jealously guarded, a marker for personal taste and shared only with the select few invited into their owners’ households and allowed to scan the titles on display. This physically delimited space has now been unleashed upon the world: where once few people could look at the books on our shelves, now theoretically, almost everyone can. The pandemic bookshelf has accidently been fashioned into the most ubiquitous liminal zone anywhere: it is the ostensibly private and personal backdrop for the staging of our public, digitally mediated, professional existence. Drawing upon theoretical perspectives from anthropology, psychology and literary theory, this chapter explores the many ways in which the private-public bookshelf has become the cultural liminal space par excellence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Boksamling og bokhistorie i en nordisk kontekst

“…26 Dette gir gjenklang i Shafquat Towheeds poeng om at "personal bookshelves serve to narrate the lives of their owners while demonstrating the accrual of individual wealth, knowledge and prestige". 27 Nettopp de personlige drivkreftene bak det å samle, og funksjonen samlingen inntar i offentligheten, ansporer til bokhistorisk refleksjon. Dette skal jeg se naermere på i neste del.…”

“…Norrick-Rühls og Towheeds antologi om de pandemiske bokhyllene viser også, på sin måte, at en eller annen fysisk form fortsatt er nøkkelen til å oppnå prestisje gjennom en bok, selv om denne formen er en "mediated digital encounter", som kan romme alt fra en virkelig inkunabel til et lerret med avbildede, falske bokrygger. 69 Samtidig tyder statistiske data på at pandemien førte til en stor salgsøkning for e-bøker, som ble klare markedsvinnere foran fysiske bøker fra 2020 og utover. 70 Den fysiske bokens død er blitt spådd flere ganger tidligere, og slike profetier har så langt ikke vist å vaere saerlig treffende.…”

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“…In the study of Prehn-Kristensen et al (2009), emotional contagion seemed to be mediated by the olfactory system. Body extensions: Personal bookshelves as background in video conferences attracted attention in the time of COVID-19 and the quarantine it caused; its carefully selected content can contribute to the perceived competence of the speaker (Towheed, 2022)-or to the opposite impression when inappropriate publications can be detected.…”