32.919, FYI: (De)constructing Corona: The Language of Conspiracy, Power and Indifference in Covid-19 Health Discourses

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-32-919. Fri Mar 12 2021. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 32.919, FYI: (De)constructing Corona: The Language of Conspiracy, Power and Indifference in Covid-19 Health Discourses

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Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2021 23:58:33
From: HAMEED ASIRU [asiru.hameed at umyu.edu.ng]
Subject: (De)constructing Corona: The Language of Conspiracy, Power and Indifference in Covid-19 Health Discourses

 
Call for Chapter Proposals

Proposal Submission Deadline: April 30, 2021

(De)constructing Corona: The Language of Conspiracy, Power and Indifference in
Covid-19 Health Discourses

To be edited by:

HAMEED TUNDE, ASIRU, Ph.D

Department of English and French, Umaru Musa Yar’adua University,
Katsina-Nigeria

asiru.hameed at umyu.edu.ng

&

DANIEL OCHIENG, ORWENJO, Ph.D

Department of Linguistics, The Technical University of Kenya, Nairobi-Kenya

orwenjo at daad-alumni.de

 

Introduction

The Coronavirus disease was pronounced a pandemic by the World Health
Organisation on 11th March, 2020. As a consequence of the psychological
distress that people are undergoing concerning the effect of the pandemic, the
pronouncement birthed several opinions about China’s role in the origination
of the disease. Different postulations were advanced by the general public to
conceptualise the pandemic. While some sources tag the disease ‘China
Disease’/’Wuhan virus’, not necessarily for its origination from Wuhan in
China but because they believed the virus was intentionally created as a
bioweapon programme which was deliberately or accidentally released, others
hold the belief that the disease was contracted through animals. Those who
support the laboratory postulation believe that the programme is meant to
achieve geopolitical or economic gains (Bernard et al., 2020). Moreover, other
important stakeholders such as the World Health Organization, leaders of
countries, scientists and health practitioners across the globe also hold
several opinions about the pandemic. Some see the disease as a deception to
change the world power structure, or an attempt to change the economic
standings of China and throw other countries into economic recession. All
these suppositions are referred to as conspiracy theories. They emerge when
tragic event such as the Coronavirus is explained or popularized by rejecting
the accepted narrative. They are usually driven by a strong desire to unveil
social forces that are self-relevant, important, and threatening (Reid, 2010).
 

Amidst all the contentions, the media has greatly played a critical role as
avenue of ‘massive infodemic’ (World Health Organisation) of false and
accurate information about the novel coronavirus. The popular beliefs are the
existence of some secret plots which the powerful elites hide from the public
purposely for political manipulation, population control and social control,
among others. To further strengthen the conspiracy theories, many people
across the globe have become indifferent about the pandemic because they see
no ‘generally acceptable’ vaccine in place to treat the disease as health
practitioners prescribe different drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, anti-viral
drugs Like lopinavir/ritonavir, and recently vaccines such as Oxford,
Astrazeneca vaccine, among others.  

Against the above backdrop, scores of studies have been conducted to
understand the nature of the disease, its cure and impacts on the
socio-economic well-being of people and nations. The studies have emanated
especially from Sciences, Medical and allied studies, Social Sciences and
other fields. Little effort has however been devoted to examining the language
usages which are indicative of the different beliefs and postulations of the
global community. This proposed book intends to examine the discursive
construction of conspiracy, power and indifference as major issues in the
discourse of the pandemic. The proposed book is considered timely as it would
explore the affordances in language and literary studies to unveil the overt
and covert ideological beliefs which are reflective of conspiracy, power and
indifference in the pandemic discourse. 

 



Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
                     Discourse Analysis
                     Pragmatics
                     Semantics
                     Sociolinguistics





 



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