Narration and COVID-19 in Latin America
Due Date: 11-05-2021
We are seeking contributions for a forthcoming Vernon Press edited volume on narration and COVID-19 in Latin America.
From the first contagion to the peak of the death toll’s curve and the timid returns to “normality” after the lockdowns declared globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has been subjectively and collectively narrated across Latin America: in the news, government reports and statistics, presidential speeches, literature, theater, cinema, photography, social media, etc. Fictional and nonfictional stories, official discourses, as well as personal and political accounts, have documented and represented the health crisis, laying bare how—in Latin American countries—the spread of the virus intersects with corruption, gender violence, inequality and exclusion, and a disconcerting rise of authoritarianism.
Departing from the fact that, in the time of COVID-19, life not only continues to be experienced but also continues to be told, this book will put together pandemic and narration in Latin America. It aims to present an interdisciplinary dialogue that contributes to understanding the local, national, and regional effects of the health crisis on the region. We welcome chapters paying critical and empathic attention to the narratives being crafted and circulated in Latin America’s pandemic times. As our purpose is to engage with a broad range of scholarly disciplines, we are interested in contributions addressing the intersections of narration and COVID-19 from diverse perspectives and methodologies. Chapters can be written in Spanish or English.
Possible contributions may explore (but are not limited to) the following topics:
– Latin American literature in the time of COVID-19, from real-time literary responses on social media to long-term literary projects engaging with the pandemic and its consequences
– Fictional and nonfictional testimonies of the pandemic in Latin America
Narratives of gender violence in Latin America’s pandemic times, from governments’ responses to increases in domestic abuse to NGOs’ communication campaigns and actions for supporting victims of gender-based violence in lockdown
– Official discourses about the spread of the virus in Latin America, including government reports and statistics, presidential speeches, officials’ declarations and other forms of official communication about the crisis
– Portrayals of COVID-19 in Latin American media, film, and TV
– Visual narratives of the pandemic in Latin America, from photographic accounts of the crisis on mass media to independent projects to document health emergency visually
– Latin American theater and performance in lockdown
– Representations of the virus, its consequences, and its victims in Latin American journalism
Please submit an abstract (max. 300 words) to the volume editors: Luis A. Medina Cordova (luis.medina@kcl.ac.uk) and Andrea Espinoza (andrea.espinoza@kcl.ac.uk). Inquiries also welcome.
Deadline for proposals: 5 November 2021
Completed chapters should be 5,000– 7,000 words and will be due in early 2022 (date TBA). For more information, visit https://vernonpress.com/proposal/169/44ea73dc8a9025c4ae47a6a18cee669f.