Call for Book Chapters: "Pandemic and Narration: COVID-19 Narratives in Latin America"

We are seeking contributions for a forthcoming 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, theatre, cinema, photography, social media etc. Fictional and non-fictional 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 impacts 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 non-fictional 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 the 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 theatre 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: 19th of November 2021.

Completed chapters should be between 5000 and 7000 words and will be due in early 2022 (date TBA).