Corona Fictions. On Viral Narratives in Times of Pandemics

https://corona-fictions.uni-graz.at/

During the global crisis caused by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, all of a sudden, societies worldwide found themselves in a state of emergency. While governments consulted mostly virologists and ordered a general lockdown to ‘flatten the curve’, citizens turned to existing ‘pandemic fiction’ or started to produce their own ‘corona fictions’ in order to understand the crisis (management), distract from pandemic fear or endure confinement and physical distancing. These reactions reveal the importance of literary and cultural productions, which – understood as a pool of “Means of Living and Means of Survival” (Ette 2016, 7) – offer explanations, show coping mechanisms, and foster resilience.
The leading hypothesis of the project understands that pandemic narratives are based on consistent structures which circulate across media. ‘Spreading’ through transmedia storytelling (based on Jenkins), they contribute to an overarching meta-narrative throughout different subgenres, which, in turn, transfer their genre characteristics to the content.
This assumption leads to the following research questions:
? To what extent and how do corona fictions differ from previous pandemic fictions? Which parts of the meta-narrative are reactivated in corona fictions?
? What are main topics of corona fictions? Is it the fear of getting the virus, of dying or the difficulties of the confinement (isolation, care duties, domestic violence, etc.)?
? What narratological function does the coronavirus adopt?
The objectives of the project are to determine how the pandemic meta-narrative is reactivated within current corona fiction. Furthermore, to demonstrate how health policy measures, e.g. the lockdown, influence cultural production processes and sociocultural practices.
Institut für Romanistik

corona.fictions@uni-graz.at

Diese Information wurde am 16. April 2021 aus dem Repositorium IHS entnommen.

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