The Semiotics of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Bloomsbury Advances in Semiotics)

Focusing on the discursive dimension of the COVID-19 pandemic from a semiotic perspective, this book uses semiotic theory and methods to analyse the meaning-making mechanisms and dynamics that occurred during, and revolved around, the pandemic. Demonstrating the utility of semiotic theory, concepts and analytical methods to make sense of discursive phenomena like those triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, the book explores in detail: · the blame-attribution discourses that emerged at the beginning of the pandemic; · how the coronavirus was brought to life in plastic and visual manifestations as a monster that poses a threat to humans; · how the collective actor ‘the healthcare workers’ was constructed in discourse and axiologised in positive terms; · the semiotics of the body during the pandemic, with a focus on the face, facemasks, social distancing and the uses of the body in online environments; · the idea of a ‘new’ normality following the pandemic. The book examines different dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic, including examples from Europe, Latin America and the United States and a wide range of images, texts, practices and objects, in order to highlight the importance of its discursive and semiotic nature. Cover Contents List of Figures Preface Acknowledgements 1 The Covid-19 Pandemic in Context 1.1 The Covid-19 pandemic in a nutshell 1.2 From a state of everyday normality to a pandemic mode 1.3 The pandemic mode as an object of study 1.4 Aim and structure of the book 2 Using Semiotics to Study Contemporary Events 2.1 Semiotics and the study of the present 2.2 Discourse, practices and interactions 2.3 Cognition, narrativity and affect 2.4 Mediatization, deep mediatization, hypermediatization 3 A Semiotic Account of the Covid-19 Pandemic 3.1 An event between nature and culture 3.2 Issues in which the cognitive dimension is salient 3.3 Issues in which the narrative dimension is salient 3.4 Issues in which the affective dimension is salient 4 Pandemic Blaming, Shaming and Scapegoating 4.1 The theory behind blaming, shaming and scapegoating 4.2 Blaming, shaming and scapegoating groups 4.3 Blaming, shaming and scapegoating in times of Covid-19 5 The Coronavirus, an Evil Enemy 5.1 Bringing the invisible virus to life in scientific discourse 5.2 The semiotics of the enemy 5.3 The construction in discourse of SARS-CoV-2 as an enemy 6 The (Super)Heroic Healthcare Workers 6.1 A new value for an existing collective identity 6.2 Praising the healthcare heroes 6.3 The figurativization of healthcare workers as (super)heroes 7 The Pandemic in the Media 7.1 The Covid-19 pandemic on traditional media 7.2 Humour, memes and viral content 7.3 Other texts circulating in the media 8 The Body in the Times of a Pandemic 8.1 Proxemics, space and the body 8.2 Social distancing, interactions and online environments 8.3 Medical facemasks and the face Epilogue. The Post-pandemic New Normal Notes References Index