Analyse af Siri Hustvedts essay 'Living with strangers'

Siri Hustvedt’s work often poses questions about the nature of identity, selfhood and perception.

‘Living with strangers’ is a litterary/personal essay on Hustveldt’s own experience of ‘The Big Apple’. She explains about the differences between the social code of conduct between the big cities and smaller places where she herself came from.

Hustveldt begins her story by telling that she grew up in rural Minnesota and about how important it is there to greet everyone you meet on the road. She explains that it was rather a custom and that;

‘Passing someone in silence was not only rude; but it could lead to accusation of snobbery’.

She moved to New York City in 1978 and discovered a completely different perception of dealing with strangers. Living among hordes of people, physically close and unavoidable to notice in several ways. She notes the fact that she can both hear and see her neighbors in their private life. On the sidewalk you are very likely to get jostled, bumped and elbowed. And in the subway you most probably will have to put up standing or sitting so close to strangers that you will experience no less than a very intimate contact with someone you do not know; ‘…my body pressed so tightly against them, I could smell their hair oils, perfumes and sweat.’