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Introduction

Introduction Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/english-language-notes/article-pdf/60/1/183/1507984/183goodman.pdf by DEEPDYVE INC user on 12 May 2022 Of Note ............................................................................................................................................................................. nan goodman he coronavirus pandemic that began in late 2019 and that merged with other T catastrophic global conditions to create a syndemic (see Cynthia J. Davis’snote) has brought changes beyond our comprehension. Pandemic-inspired articles, nov- els, stories, poems, blogs, tweets, videos, songs, and artwork are being produced at a prodigious rate as we try to make sense of what we all have, to varying degrees, wit- nessed and experienced for the last two years and continue to confront with no clear end in sight. In this “Of Note” section we hear from two literary scholars, Davis and Stuti Goswami, who have been writing about the body, medicine, pain, and the del- eterious effects of disease and other maladies for some time and who now offer their insights into how this pandemic resembles and differs from previous global health calamities. Their contributions revolve in turn around recently published work on the pandemic by other scholars, including Anjuli Fatima Raza Kolb’s “Paravictori- anism: Mary Shelley and Viral Sovereignty” (Victorian Studies, Spring 2020), Walter D. Mignolo’s “The Logic of the In-Visible: Decolonial Reflections on the Change of Epoch” (Theory, Culture, and Society, December 2020), and a multiauthored sympo- sium titled “Thinking through the Pandemic” (Science Fiction Studies, November 2020). Even as we marshal words to assess the damage the pandemic has done, however—the deaths it has caused and the racial and health care inequities it has perpetuated and aggravated—the theme of these essays and notes is the ineffability of their impact in the end. No matter how hard we try, it seems, this pandemic defies description. The question with which Davis opens her note echoes throughout. “Should we view the COVID-19 pandemic as an inflection point or as more of the same?” she asks. Acknowledging a similar uncertainty, Goswami observes: “The imprints left behind by the novel coronavirus in the lives of people are multidimen- sional and constantly evolving.” But write we must, and so we offer these articles and notes as a way of bearing witness to the ineffability of our loss and of making good on our obligation to scrutinize it, for without that we will never find our way to the other side of this disaster. Committed to giving a forum to as many voices as we can on the subject, ELN will also follow this “Of Note” section with a special issue ded- icated to the subject of the pandemic that is scheduled for publication in 2023, at which point, we hope, the world will look a little brighter. english language notes 60:1, April 2022 doi 10.1215/00138282-9560298 © 2022 Regents of the University of Colorado http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png English Language Notes Duke University Press

Introduction

Goodman, Nan; Lemon, Rebecca
English Language Notes , Volume 60 (1) – Apr 1, 2022
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Copyright
Copyright © 2022 Regents of the University of Colorado
ISSN
0013-8282
eISSN
2573-3575
DOI
10.1215/00138282-9560298
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Abstract

Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/english-language-notes/article-pdf/60/1/183/1507984/183goodman.pdf by DEEPDYVE INC user on 12 May 2022 Of Note ............................................................................................................................................................................. nan goodman he coronavirus pandemic that began in late 2019 and that merged with other T catastrophic global conditions to create a syndemic (see Cynthia J. Davis’snote) has brought changes beyond our comprehension. Pandemic-inspired articles, nov- els, stories, poems, blogs, tweets, videos, songs, and artwork are being produced at a prodigious rate as we try to make sense of what we all have, to varying degrees, wit- nessed and experienced for the last two years and continue to confront with no clear end in sight. In this “Of Note” section we hear from two literary scholars, Davis and Stuti Goswami, who have been writing about the body, medicine, pain, and the del- eterious effects of disease and other maladies for some time and who now offer their insights into how this pandemic resembles and differs from previous global health calamities. Their contributions revolve in turn around recently published work on the pandemic by other scholars, including Anjuli Fatima Raza Kolb’s “Paravictori- anism: Mary Shelley and Viral Sovereignty” (Victorian Studies, Spring 2020), Walter D. Mignolo’s “The Logic of the In-Visible: Decolonial Reflections on the Change of Epoch” (Theory, Culture, and Society, December 2020), and a multiauthored sympo- sium titled “Thinking through the Pandemic” (Science Fiction Studies, November 2020). Even as we marshal words to assess the damage the pandemic has done, however—the deaths it has caused and the racial and health care inequities it has perpetuated and aggravated—the theme of these essays and notes is the ineffability of their impact in the end. No matter how hard we try, it seems, this pandemic defies description. The question with which Davis opens her note echoes throughout. “Should we view the COVID-19 pandemic as an inflection point or as more of the same?” she asks. Acknowledging a similar uncertainty, Goswami observes: “The imprints left behind by the novel coronavirus in the lives of people are multidimen- sional and constantly evolving.” But write we must, and so we offer these articles and notes as a way of bearing witness to the ineffability of our loss and of making good on our obligation to scrutinize it, for without that we will never find our way to the other side of this disaster. Committed to giving a forum to as many voices as we can on the subject, ELN will also follow this “Of Note” section with a special issue ded- icated to the subject of the pandemic that is scheduled for publication in 2023, at which point, we hope, the world will look a little brighter. english language notes 60:1, April 2022 doi 10.1215/00138282-9560298 © 2022 Regents of the University of Colorado

Journal

English Language Notes – Duke University Press

Published: Apr 1, 2022

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