2Starting out from Marx's theory of alienated labor, the capitalism critique of the Frankfurt School, Sartre's existentialist critique of consciousness, and more recent alienation theories, the present work investigates new and old forms of alienation in the working world of the 21st century, which can be characterized by the keywords flexibility, mobility, precariousness, and the commitment to lifelong self-optimization. Italian short stories, novels, and a report as well as a German novel from the period 2005-2014 (Raimo, Pincio, Lagioia, Murgia, Bajani, Nata, Ricci, Schonthaler) are being examined in order to elaborate aesthetic forms of representation of alienated working conditions and structures of consciousness and to analyze if critique of alienation is being practiced in contemporary literature and if there is even thought about the possibilities of overcoming alienation.