Chronotopes of war and dread in pandemic times

In: Language, culture and society, Volume 4, Issue 2, p. 242-263

Abstract

AbstractDuring the first months of 2020, our everyday life suddenly changed when the novel Coronavirus started to infect humans at a very fast rate, causing serious respiratory and other diseases, death, and fear of the unknown. Local friends and family members shared traumatic stories, images, and videoclips about death and dread in Northern Italy, where the first confirmed COVID-19 cases were discovered, just two months after the virus was first detected in Wuhan, China (Worobey, 2021). Inspired byBakhtin's (1981)notion of chronotope, by autoethnography and phenomenology, within a linguistic anthropological framework, this article examines how individuals have been embodying COVID-19 related uncertainties and fears in their everyday life. Through the analysis of (auto)ethnographic narratives, recontextualized images and videoclips, including the ones related to the 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, I show how regionalizedchronotopes of warand more globalchronotopes of dreadhave emerged and solidified across pandemic times.