COVID-19 narratives and layered temporality

Area of Science:

• Medical Humanities
• Narrative Medicine
• Cultural Studies

Background:

• Cultural representations of epidemics often impose premature closure.
• Colonial and racist medical discourse has historically marginalized patient narratives.
• Understanding diverse experiences of illness is crucial for equitable healthcare.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how narrative approaches can resist epidemic closure.
• To analyze how imaginative literature and oral histories create alternative temporalities.
• To examine the potential of long COVID narratives in challenging medical discourse.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of science and speculative fiction by Alejandro Morales and Tananarive Due.
• Examination of online Facebook posts and oral history samples from long COVID survivors.
• Focus on the creation of alternative temporalities within these narratives.

Main Results:

• Science fiction and speculative fiction analyzed demonstrate the creation of alternative temporalities.
• These alternative temporalities effectively undermine colonial and racist medical discourse.
• Emerging long COVID narratives also exhibit alternate temporalities of illness.

Conclusions:

• Narrative approaches offer powerful tools to resist simplistic representations of epidemics.
• Alternative temporalities in literature and personal narratives challenge dominant medical paradigms.
• Long COVID survivor accounts provide valuable insights into the subjective experience of prolonged illness.