CARE, GENDER, AND CRISIS IN POST-COVID AMERICAN LITERATURE: A FEMINIST READING OF CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN NARRATIVES

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly reshaped social, political, and cultural realities across the world, exposing structural inequalities that disproportionately affected women and marginalized communities. Contemporary American literature has emerged as an important medium for documenting these experiences, portraying the emotional, psychological, and economic consequences of the pandemic through narratives of caregiving, isolation, grief, and resilience. This paper explores the representation of care, gender, and crisis in selected post-COVID American literary texts through a feminist critical framework. Drawing upon feminist literary theory and care ethics, the study examines how contemporary American writers portray women's invisible labour, emotional caregiving, domestic responsibilities, and gendered vulnerabilities during and after the pandemic. The research analyses selected novels by American authors to investigate how pandemic narratives challenge traditional gender roles while simultaneously exposing persistent inequalities embedded within family structures, workplaces, and healthcare systems. The study further explores the intersection of gender with race, class, and identity, demonstrating how post-pandemic literature critiques systemic injustices and reimagines new forms of solidarity, resilience, and social care. By examining these literary representations, the paper argues that post-COVID American literature functions not merely as a record of historical crisis but as a feminist intervention that questions patriarchal power structures and advocates more inclusive understandings of care, community, and social responsibility. The findings contribute to contemporary literary studies by highlighting the significance of feminist perspectives in interpreting pandemic literature and by emphasizing literature's role in documenting collective trauma and envisioning possibilities for social transformation.

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