Narrating catastrophic 'cosmology episodes': an analytical reading of graham elder's a covid odyssey: a fictional covid-19 pandemic story

Abstract EN

This study aims at exploring how narrative creativity deals with the current catastrophic crisis of COVID-19 through a critical examination of Graham Elder's A Covid Odyssey: A Fictional COVID-19 Pandemic Story (2020).

It investigates the text in light of Seeger and Sellnow's theorization on narratives of crisis and Karl E.

Weick's deliberations on "cosmology episode.

" Elder's text narrativizes the pandemic as a disruptive event that precipitates a global sense of claustrophobia and uncertainty, and profoundly destabilizes the orderly cosmos of normal life dynamics and routines.

A Covid Odyssey contextualizes the chaos and disarray and constructs meaningful structures for a sundry of conflicting accounts and irrational interpretations that involve denial of risks, potential harm and post-crisis impact.

The narrative elicits deeper insights into and rational outlook of the experience and it reshapes perceptions turning the attention to the role that the individual plays in the cosmos as an inclusive habitat that relies for its survival on collective solidarity of intelligible critical worldviews.

The study of the narrative reveals the extent to which empathetic effect mitigates discomfort and arms the emotionally, physically and economically suffering with a possibility of stability, a sense of control over the chaotic situation and a hope in surviving the 'cosmology episode'.