Pandemic Fictions: Covid-19 and the Cultures of Dystopia

Abstract

Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, dystopian imaginaries have been used to describe both the threat posed by the virus and the public health restrictions implemented to contain its spread. They have fuelled panic buying and conspiracy theories, and have informed public discourse and government rhetoric. Dystopian works like 1984, The Eyes of Darkness, The Matrix and Black Mirror have been lauded for their foresight, while former health secretary, Matt Hancock, has stated that watching Contagion affected his planning of the vaccine rollout. This essay reflects on the relationship between dystopian cultures and Covid-19, examining, firstly, the role that figurations of dystopia have played in the collective and political response to the pandemic. Contextualising the British government’s handling of the crisis in the political culture of neoliberalism, the essay uses the concept of dystopia to underline the continuity of this response with the politics of the decade that preceded it – in the aborted pursuit of “herd immunity”, for example; the non-transparent conferment to private-sector companies, with little or no public health expertise, of contracts worth billions; and the authoritarian use of Covid legislation. The essay argues that it is the loss of impulses and discourses that challenge the status quo that marks the truly dystopian aspect of the pandemic. It explores, finally, the cultural implications of this, questioning the value we place on culture and the work we ask of it in times of crisis, and probing the political utility therein of the notion of dystopia.