The Viral Imaginary: Between Crisis and Routine

This action interrogates the social and cultural interpretations and narratives of viruses in Asia. It focuses specifically on how viruses have been historically narrated, interrogating the framings of viruses as routine versus viruses as crisis. To examine these framings, this action will interrogate the historical layering mobilized in Asian popular culture. By analyzing these reflections of viruses alongside how people respond to them, the action will query how historical parallels are used to narrativize the virus, making “the virus” a knowable entity. The overall goal of this action is to elicit the lessons learned from these social and cultural interpretations that can be compared to Europe and the world.