Pandemic Narratives Research Articles

Youth, Interrupted? Young Adults, Time and the Future During the Covid-19 Pandemic

This article analyses how the pandemic reshapes young adults’ relationships with time and the future. While youth sociology has already highlighted the significant disruption of young adults’ daily temporalities, we emphasize the need to further explore young adults’ relationship with the « future » and its evolution in times of crisis. Using a life course perspective, we explore how the health crisis has affected not only the immediate time experiences of young adults but also their aspirations and their future outlook. Drawing on 48 life stories of young adults from various social backgrounds in Canada (Quebec and Ontario), we show that the pandemic represents a « shock of uncertainty » for all, necessitating rapid readjustments in one’s trajectory. Depending on living conditions and unequal capacities to « bounce back », life stories become divided into three main pandemic narratives: the fall or « stolen » time, the respite or « recovered » time, and the parenthesis or « suspended » time. Each of these narratives corresponds to a specific experience of the future, whether lost, reclaimed, or just on hold. We highlight how past vulnerabilities influence the very experience of the pandemic, and thus lead to different abilities to project into the future. The discussion identifies key lessons to take better account of time and the future in research on youth in a crisis context.

Heroines in the East and the West: a comparative semiotic study of female imagery in the anti-pandemic discourse of Italy and China

Abstract This paper explores the war-based narrative of the COVID-19 discourse in Italy and China, with a focus on female imagery and the conceptualization of female heroism. Employing Umberto Eco’s notion of intertextuality, we analyze influential texts – including texts from social media, journalism, and art – emerging from the pandemic’s first wave in China and Italy to examine how female healthcare workers are depicted as pandemic heroes and highlight the complex interplay between gender representation and cultural topoi. Although casting women in heroic roles traditionally dominated by men may seem progressive, our analysis reveals that such portrayals actually reinforce existing gender stereotypes in both cultures. Our intertextual analysis reveals the extent to which the pandemic narrative has both reflected and perpetuated gender inequalities. This comparative semiotic study contributes to critically assessing the impact of pandemic-related female imagery on societal gender norms and expectations.

Constructing a Conformer–Explorer Identity in Pandemic Narratives: A Qualitative Study of Chinese Emerging Adults

Existing research indicates that social crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped young people’s sense of self, but little is known about what identities emerging adults construct in their pandemic narratives. Following propositions of narrative identity and Terror Management Theory, this qualitative study investigated Chinese emerging adults’ identity construction in their narratives of the national outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2022. Participants were 62 college students invited to share their pandemic experiences with reflections. Thematic analysis of the data suggests that the participants shared their pandemic experiences as a process of managing their death terror activated in the pandemic which threatened their sense of self and meanwhile motivated them to reconstruct who they are in the world. Based on their meaning-making capacities, the participants disclosed death awareness and vulnerabilities, adopted a temporal perspective in storytelling, emphasized their interpersonal and social connections, and made meaning out of the pandemic experiences to defend against death terror. As an outcome of their narration, a conformer–explorer identity was constructed in their pandemic narratives and we proposed a dialectical model to capture the dynamics of the construction. Although with limitations, this study contributes to our understanding of the functions of mortality salience on narrative identity among emerging adults in collectivist cultures during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Analyzing the Governance of Fear in Pandemic Narratives: A Case Study of the COVID-19 Pandemic

<p>以往，衛生治理是以某個國界之內的範圍來考慮，倚靠的是主權國家通過邊境控制保護其領土，以避免傳染病的入侵。然而，當今傳染病的風險跨越國家疆域，必須使用跨越國界的方式治理，即從「國家威脅管理」轉移到「全球風險治理」。恐懼治理是公共衛生重要與核心措施，動員恐懼等同於控制社會。新冠疫情敘事多置入適當程度的恐懼，在恐懼中，安全與秩序是首要價值，這意味為達到安全，民眾必須放棄部份的自由。本研究分析做為風險生產者與治理者的世界衛生組織（WHO）治理新冠疫情的方式，分析其如何運用科學證據與專家言說建構恐懼，以瞭解大流行敘事如何產生於特定的社會和政治語境中，以及在其間涉及的權力、規訓、治理等議題。</p> <p> </p><p>In the past, public health governance was primarily concerned with a specific national territory and relied on sovereign states to protect their territory through border controls to prevent the invasion of infectious diseases. However, the risks of infectious diseases nowadays transcend national boundaries, necessitating a cross-border approach to disease governance, shifting from "national threat management" to "global risk governance." Fear is a crucial and central measure in public health, with pandemic narratives often incorporating an appropriate level of fear. In this context, security and order are paramount values, implying that in order to achieve security, individuals may need to relinquish certain freedoms and refrain from actions that would undermine the ability of governing institutions. This study analyzes the World Health Organization (WHO)’s approach to pandemic governance as both a "producer and governor of risks." This study examined how WHO utilizes scientific evidence and expert discourse to construct fear. This analysis seeks to understand how pandemic narratives emerge within specific social and political contexts and addresses issues related to power, regulation, and governance within the framework of fear-based governance.</p> <p> </p>

Effects of cooperative and uncooperative narratives on trust during the COVID-19 pandemic: Experimental evidence

To help contain the COVID-19 pandemic, many policymakers and health experts and the media have promoted responsible health behavior by using public narratives highlighting uncooperative behavior, including the lack of social distancing and resistance to various pandemic restrictions and COVID-19 vaccination. However, whether these uncooperative narratives may have detrimental consequences on trust is unclear. Hence, we conducted an online experiment to explore how the exposure to uncooperative and cooperative pandemic narratives affects people's trust in each other. We hypothesized that providing individuals with narratives depicting behaviors that violate (uncooperative narratives) and support pandemic social norms (cooperative narratives) would decrease and increase their trust in others, respectively. We showed that neither of the narratives had any effect on trust.

Adapt, Survive and Evolve: Changing Environment in Two Post-Apocalyptic Novels The Stand and Earth Abides

The following research which is grounded on natural selection uses text analysis to find out the significance of survival in the post-apocalyptic narration mainly with reference to Stephen King's The Stand. The intertextuality of this work with Earth Abides is also pointed out. The saga of survival in the post-apocalyptic period, Darwin’s concept of survival of the fittest and the human ability for adaptation are elucidated in the article. The survival stories teach us how to reconstruct the fallen society, providing an insight into how the affected people handle the situation (Leon C Megginson). It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change. The pandemic narratives can serve as an important area in the classic to contemporary literature in throwing light on future survival issues, teaching how to overcome the precarious situations. It can be reiterated that the post-apocalyptic narratives speak volumes about the above-mentioned significant areas. Ipso facto, the popularity of Pandemic literature should make humanity sure-footed in prevailing over the pandemic threats, and assuring new life and hope.

Sacred breath: Ohio nurses respond to COVID-19

In the fall of 2021, the Wick Poetry Center, a recognized international leader in creative writing interventions, launched the website Sacred Breath: Voices of Ohio Nurses in Response to COVID-19 (sacredbreathproject.com) with funding from the Ohio Nurses Foundation. The purpose of the website was to offer Ohio nurses an accessible platform to reflect on their personal and professional lived experiences as caregivers during an historic time of pandemic, sacrifice, uncertainty, and scarcity, and to share their voice with others. What resulted was 204 submissions over a three-month period with participant responses touching on widespread sentiments including grief, fatigue, anger, and resilience. It was from the gap in the current literature on pandemic narratives that the researchers of this study began a basic qualitative thematic analysis of the Sacred Breath project website (SBP) responses to gain a better understanding of how nurses, nurse educators, and nursing students made sense of and gave voice to their personal and professional lived experiences during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.While stories of nursing during the Covid-19 pandemic have been widely available and disseminated by popular media, academic studies have been slower to utilize qualitative and experimental methods to specifically address pandemic narratives and the resulting discourses by nurses working in and around clinical settings. The Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University has spent nearly forty years working in the community to address urgent social needs using expressive writing methods that are often overlooked by traditional social and arts outreach. The Wick Poetry Center engaged local academic networks and community health partners to invite nurses, nursing students, and nurse educators the Sacred Breath Project By evaluating responses to the intervention website, this qualitative study is aimed to fill this gap in the current literature as well as begin to understand how nurses made sense of their work lives during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.What does this paper contribute to the wider global clinical community?What is already known:•The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in substantial increases of alarm fatigue, moral distress, and dysfunctional coping mechanisms among clinical nurses.•Art interventions positively impact mental health conditions in nurses.What this paper adds:•This review of the Sacred Breath thematic analysis broadens the understanding of how nurses made sense of their work lives during the Covid-19 pandemic.•This review creates a new discourse about the nursing profession in times of crisis—one cocreated by practitioners, educators, students, and creative intervention participants.

Pandemic narratives in stories about hospice palliative care: The impact of Covid-19 upon ideals of timely, holistic care and quality of life

BackgroundHospice palliative care aims to provide timely interventions and holistic care that focusses on quality of life for people who are terminally ill. In the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic the national political and healthcare contexts changed significantly. Throughout this time hospices had to repeatedly adjust their approach to supporting terminally ill people, many of whom were especially vulnerable to Covid-19. AimThe aim of this paper was to explore hospice patients, carers, staff and senior managers stories to identify how changing pandemic narratives affected their understanding of hospice palliative care as timely, holistic and supporting quality of life. MethodsNarrative analysis of in-depth interviews with patients, carers, staff and senior managers (n = 70) recruited from hospices across the West-Midlands, UK, in 2020–22. FindingsWe identified four ‘pandemic narratives’ (reaction; revision; resilience; (re)normalisation) in the participants' accounts of hospice palliative care support in the first two years of the pandemic. In each narrative we explore how Covid-19 and the associated pandemic guidance affected what quality of life was understood to be; how what was considered to be timely care could change during the palliative care journey; and, how different ideas of holistic care were emphasised as the hospice and wider healthcare context changed. ConclusionThis is the first-time stories about the first two-years of the Covid-19 pandemic from hospice patients, carers, staff and senior managers have been analysed together. We identified how the pandemic brought an existential challenge to ideas of what hospice palliative care is and could be. Our findings suggest that ‘living with covid’ will continue to affect hospice palliative care's ideals of timeliness of care, holistic support, and quality of life left.

“We are always in self-isolation”: Navigating COVID-19 as a young person in Canada with cystic fibrosis

The pandemic disproportionately influenced marginalized communities in North America. However, the social and spatial inequalities impacting marginalized rare genetic disease communities – such as those living with cystic fibrosis – have not been heard in mainstream pandemic narratives. Sensitized by the social determinants of health, this qualitative study explored the experiences of 12 youth with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) during the pandemic. Content analysis revealed four themes. Youth with CF experienced changes across physical spaces, faced pandemic anxiety, and struggled with access to digital and medical spaces. Youth also reflected on being “used to” life-long physical distancing as a result of CF. Our findings show the complexity of environments for youth with CF during the pandemic while demonstrating how Covid-19 shaped the lives of rare disease communities. Our findings also illustrate spatial and social inequities among marginalized, rare genetic disease communities.

The Mechanism of Survival in Post-Apocalyptic Pandemic Narratives: A Comparative Study

Post-Apocalyptic Fiction is a subgenre of science fiction in which a global crisis takes its toll on the human population, leaving only a few with the luck of surviving the scene. However, survival slowly develops into a determining power as the remaining people try to reconstruct a new civilization with the use of different strategies and mechanisms of survival. This study is then based on post-apocalyptic texts, particularly ones that are concerned with pandemics, and carefully examines and compares two ground-breaking narratives of post-apocalyptic fiction: Stephen King’s The Stand (1978) and Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven (2014). It attempts to explore the two narratives in terms of the strategies and mechanisms of survival as the two novelists recapture the survivors’ experiences and their struggle to survive the ongoing post-apocalyptic setting.

The double invisibility of Long Covid in children

The Covid-19 pandemic has been dominated by discussions of mild and short-lasting cases or acutely serious or lethal forms of the disease; less attention has been paid to long-term Covid-19 symptoms (‘Long Covid’), particularly in children. This analysis of the experiences of children and adolescents with Long Covid, and those of their parents/caregivers, argues that children with Long Covid encounter a ‘double invisibility’ due to the condition's limited social currency and their status as the youngest members of society. We draw on 39 narrative interviews about children's and adolescents' experiences, conducted in 2021–2022 in the United Kingdom. The occurrence of Long Covid in children challenges key aspects of a dominant pandemic narrative, some of which have persisted from the early stages of the pandemic into 2023. Analysis of our qualitative interviews demonstrates that participant experiences were shaped and undermined by the convergence of three elements of the dominant pandemic narrative: that Covid-19 is mild, and everyone recovers; that children are not badly affected by Covid-19; and that worst of the pandemic was essentially ‘over’ as early as 2021/2022. In the face of these characterisations of Covid-19 experience, young people and their families reported significant additional challenges in making the illness experiences of children and adolescents visible, and thus in gaining appropriate support from medical and educational professionals. We interpret this in relation to ‘social currency’ - the extent to which an illness elicits understanding and acceptance by wider society. Children and adolescents with Long Covid struggled to signal the severity of their condition and elicit care in the manner expected for other debilitating illnesses. This was exacerbated by assumptions and stereotypes about unwell children and adolescents, and their parents, and questioning of their candidacy as reliable, trustworthy patients.

Pandemic Narratives in Graphic Literature: A Study of Comics

This paper expands the discourse on pandemic studies in literature and the arts by integrating an analysis of comics and graphic narratives. While traditional literary scholarship has marginally addressed the thematic representation of pandemics, this study foregrounds the unique contributions of comics in depicting and understanding these crises. I argue that comics, with their blend of visual and textual storytelling, offer nuanced perspectives on pandemics, often overlooked in mainstream literary canon. Through an examination of works like Hope On! An Anthology of Comics and comic books such as Nagraj Strikes: The Attack of Coronaman, state-sponsored initiatives like Kids, Vaayu & Corona, and webzines such as The Times of Corona, this paper illustrates how comics capture the multifaceted nature of pandemics. These narratives range from optimistic environmental reflections to critical social commentaries, embodying diverse cultural responses to disease outbreaks. Furthermore, the paper discusses the representational challenges faced in visualizing pandemics and how comics navigate these through creative personifications and metaphorical depictions of viruses. The unique capacity of comics to engage, educate, and provoke thought makes them a powerful medium in the ongoing dialogue about pandemics. By integrating comics into pandemic studies, this research aims to enrich the academic conversation, providing a more comprehensive understanding of how literature and art reflect and respond to global health crises.

Shifting Spaces: How Journalism Students Perceive their Training through the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT This study explores how journalism students in one Canadian post-secondary programme perceived their training through the pandemic. We draw on journalism pedagogy literature, Bourdieu’s field theory, and Zelizer’s conceptualisation of interpretive communities to interrogate how remote learning disrupted opportunities for socialisation in the journalistic field. Through surveys of and interviews with students, we identify shared narratives of loss and perceptions of precarity in journalism careers. We argue emerging journalists’ perceptions of the pandemic period contribute to mapping the field and its practices. We conclude by considering how shared pandemic narratives of disruption add to conversations that interrupt the reproduction of spaces that foster burnout or overwork, as students and educators seize opportunities to reframe how journalism operates and how it is taught.

Exploring Racial Disparities in the 1918 Influenza Pandemic: A Case Study of Durham, North Carolina.

The paradox of excess mortality among White Americans during the 1918 influenza pandemic has long puzzled historians and scientists. Recent scholarship has suggested that this disparity was not true for the country as a whole, but rather regional variation was observed. The factors influencing these disparities remain speculative. A case study was conducted of Durham, North Carolina, a city known nationally for the achievements of its Black middle class, to further explore these themes relying on numerous sources including newspapers and death certificates. Though Durham's overall mortality was lower than many places in North Carolina, the White mortality rate greatly exceeded that of the Black population. Previously described theories, including Alfred Crosby's exposure hypothesis and segregation, were explored. The most notable difference between Durham's pandemic narrative and other comparable towns was the robust healthcare response, which was made possible by the excellence of the Black nursing force from Lincoln Hospital. Nursing care was the best treatment available for the 1918 influenza, but most of the nation experienced severe nursing shortages due to the war effort. This study thus provides an example of how the Black health community has proven an active agent in countering the structural forces driving racial disparities.

Pandemic and Superstitions: Anantha Murthy’s Samskara as a Testimony to Fragile Society

With the global outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a heightened interest in pandemic literature and epidemic narratives, as the everyday lives of individuals undergo significant transformations in response to the arrival of such a pandemic, reflecting a growing curiosity about how literature explores and elucidates these challenging experiences. It is widely acknowledged that there has been no shortage of pandemic literature and related material in world literature, including Indian vernacular literature, available in both its original languages and translated forms, underscoring the richness and diversity of perspectives on pandemics across different literary traditions. What is particularly intriguing is that socially conscious and perceptive writers often use epidemics or pandemics as a lens through which to critically examine and delve into the intricate layers of India’s caste-based hierarchical social structure, offering a unique perspective to dissect and reflect upon the dynamics of this deeply entrenched societal framework. In this paper, an attempt has been made to examine Anantha Murthy’s Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man as a pandemic narrative that brilliantly captures the vignettes of the reality of superstition-ridden society at times of crisis and emergency. The paper also endeavours to investigate how literature seeks to provide solace during moments of necessity and hardship by offering an insightful account of various events that occur during pandemics, illustrating how the portrayal of pandemics in literature often serves as a source of inspiration for humanity, highlighting the capacity of literature to offer guidance and motivation in challenging times.

Pandemic narratives of library and information centers in Baguio-Benguet

PurposeThe study aims to determine the extent of COVID-19’s impact on the libraries and information centers within Benguet. It identified the key differences in the effect of the pandemic on each type of library: public, special, school and academic. It recalled and documented the challenges faced by libraries and librarians. It determined which aspects of their library were affected and how they were modified in terms of their policies, personnel, physical space, services, collection, infodemic response and marketing.Design/methodology/approachThe study used the qualitative descriptive method approach, specifically narrative research design and conducted online focus group discussions in which 14 librarians with managerial or supervisory functions participated. This method was used to explore the topic holistically by using qualitative inquiry. It best suited the purpose of fully understanding the experiences of libraries during the pandemic. The recorded online focus group discussions conducted through Zoom were reviewed and analyzed to identify key themes and responses from the participants. The themes identified from the thematic analysis were further validated with the participants through correspondence, chats or e-mails.FindingsThe findings showed that libraries were faced with challenges brought on by the lack of a written policy for the pandemic response, a lack of information communication and technology skills and resources, strict requirements on physical setup for pandemic compliance, budget cuts or realignments and delayed procurement, misinformation and users’ lack of awareness of the new services offered by the library.Research limitations/implicationsThe study focused on the pandemic experiences of libraries and information centers in Baguio-Benguet, which was hailed as a model for local pandemic response, through the lenses of librarians with supervisory roles or functions.Practical implicationsLibraries could reflect on their experiences in this pandemic to plan for future strategies that would be best implemented in situations where face-to-face services are not allowed.Originality/valueThis study presented various best practices from different library institutions that could be emulated in the future. Many of these are still relevant regardless library services are going back to normal.

Narrative fusion and layering: statecraft and the shaping of Boris Johnson’s pandemic narrative, 2020–2021

By examining the UK Prime Minister’s justifications for his government’s pandemic responses given during press conferences and during Prime Minister’s Questions from March 2020 to July 2021, this article illustrates the narrative ‘fusion’ (using the pandemic narrative to advance other elements of policy) and ‘layering’ (using the pandemic narrative to justify past policy decision) evident in the construction of Boris Johnson's pandemic narrative. The article makes the case for viewing Johnson’s COVID-19 narrative in light of broader political dynamics within UK politics, particularly adaptations of Conservative statecraft in the Brexit era that preceded the pandemic. The article argues that the narrative itself can be a product of multiple political crises and projects. Specifically, Johnson’s pandemic narrative ‘fused’ and ‘layered’ elements of two other narratives advanced during his time in office: countering challenges to the territorial integrity of the United Kingdom and justifying the withdrawal from the European Union.

Suppressing the Crisis: Moral Panics, Emerging Infectious Diseases, and the COVID-19 Conjuncture

Background: The conjunctural moment of COVID-19 provides a window of opportunity to glean insights into the relationship between moral panics and emerging infectious disease narratives. Analysis: Using Penelope Ironstone’s 2020 essay on COVID-19 in keywords as a starting point, this article critically reflects on the ways that progressive social interests were unable to gain an upper hand in the process of narrating and defining the contradictions that were condensed in the crisis spurred by COVID-19. Conclusions and implications: The article extends Ironstone’s critique by explaining how COVID-19 keywords were expressed through a dominant pandemic narrative that discouraged as much as it incited moral panic by framing the preferred response to the crisis in terms of individualized coping strategies promising relative security from infection.

“Hice Zoom Con Mi Abuelita”: What We Can Learn from First and Second Graders' Pandemic Narratives

AbstractThis article details a classroom‐based study designed to provide agency and voice to first and second grade emergent bilinguals as they processed the COVID‐19 pandemic. Two California teachers created a narrative writing unit not only to teach specific writing skills, but also to challenge pervasive deficit assumptions that young children “could not handle” the details or scope of this global health crisis. Students' narratives illustrated a profound awareness of the cultural, social, psychological, and academic impacts of COVID‐19. This work demonstrates that children can indeed, understand and articulate complex lived experiences, while also confirming the value of writing and drawing as powerful invitations for children to communicate and process. This project highlights the resilience of children who have been living through the COVID‐19 pandemic and what adults in their lives can learn from their reflections.

Creating Peru's patient zero: pandemic narratives through traditional and social media.

During the covid-19 pandemic, authorities, journalists, and the public used the term patient zero to refer to the first diagnosed patient. However, experts describe the term as imprecise because it equates the first infected patient with the first identified one. Although the term's inaccuracy, patients zero became relevant actors and sources of information during the pandemic. This was the case with the Peruvian patient zero, who had public media participation and opened his Instagram to establish a communication channel with the public. Despite knowing the term's inaccuracy, he felt responsible for the audience and sought to give his testimony. The Peruvian case shows how patients zero respond to the public interest and establish their agency through traditional and social media.