Yvonne Völkl & Julia Obermayr 
Pandemic Protagonists [PDF ebook] 
Viral (Re)Actions in Pandemic and Corona Fictions

During the first mandatory lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic, citizens worldwide turned to »pandemic fictions« or started to produce their own »Corona Fictions« across different media. These accounts of (previously) experienced or imagined health crises feature a great variety of protagonists and their (re)actions in response to the exceptional circumstances. The contributors to this volume take a closer look at different pandemic protagonists in fictional narratives relating to the Covid-19 pandemic as well as in existing pandemic fictions. Thereby they provide new insights into pandemic narratives from a cultural, literary, and media studies perspective from antiquity to today.

About the author

Yvonne Völkl is a literary and cultural studies scholar in the field of Romance studies. Her research focuses on 18th-century literature and press, French-Canadian migrant literature and contemporary Corona Fictions.
Julia Obermayr is a cultural studies and media scholar. In 2019 she received the 14th Scientific Award of the Austrian-Canadian Society for her research on female identities in Lesbian Web Series. She specializes in cultural studies, social change, lesbian/LGBT+ studies and diversity, minority identities, and female representations in audiovisual media – currently in Corona Fictions – mainly in Romance speaking Europe and the Americas.
Elisabeth Hobisch is a literary and cultural studies scholar in the field of Romance studies. For her Ph D thesis on the epistolary form in the Spanish Spectators, she received the Award of Excellence 2016 of the Austrian Minister of Science, Investigation and Economy. Her main research interests concern 18th-century moral press in France and Spain, the digital humanities and Corona Fictions.