“There should be more time like this, to sit and dream” Louise Glück: notes on time, acceleration and community

Abstract

With this essay, we propose a reading of A Village Life (2009), by Louise Glück, as a problematisation of the relations established between time and community. Departing from the ambiguity inscribed in the title, we analyse how, contrary to the idea of an idyllic pastoral, Glück’s village is presented as an uncertain place, one that reveals the dissolution of social bonds and the impoverishment of experience. Our analysis articulates Glück’s discourse with key concepts from Hartmut Rosa’s Theory of social acceleration, which serves as the theoretical framework for understanding the symptoms of disconnection, loneliness, and loss of meaning evidenced in the text.