'Catastrophe Sociology' and the Metaphors We Live by: On Kathrin Röggla’s 'wir schlafen nicht’

Kathrin Röggla’s novel wir schlafen nicht (2004) presents a devastating critique of the ways in which the neoliberal conception of work wreaks havoc with the lives, minds, and bodies of the individual. Röggla masterfully shows the pervasive power of language – in particular, of metaphor – in shaping experience. Although aestheticized on numerous levels, wir schlafen nicht is based on interviews with management consultants. Yet it is equally shaped by sociological and critical theory. This essay explores the manner in which the documentary-journalistic and the critical-theoretical impulses in Röggla’s work converge, by focusing on the mediating function of the interviewer/narrator figure and Röggla’s use of the subjunctive.