La pandemia y sus ficciones: análisis de los procesos de subjetivación en cuatro novelas de epidemia y su vigencia en la pandemia del covid-19

Abstract

This research paper analyzes the subjective processes exhibited by the main characters of four novels set in the context of an epidemic, namely: "A Journal of the Plague Year" by Daniel Defoe (1722), "The Plague" by Albert Camus (1947), "Blindness" by José Saramago (1995), and "Nemesis" by Philip Roth (2010). Once the subjective processes of the characters are understood, the aim is to contrast which of these subjective processes, evidenced in the novels, were experienced by people during the COVID-19 confinement in Bogotá. For this purpose, a socio-hermeneutic methodological proposal was developed focusing on discourse analysis, taking into account both personal or micro-social contexts and macro-social processes that allow understanding the motivations and discourses that give meaning to the actions of characters and individuals. To constitute a discursive corpus enabling discourse analysis in characters and individuals, a questionnaire was developed, answered by the characters through the use of textual quotes from the novels and by individuals through interviews. This resulted in a socio-hermeneutic analysis of each novel, identifying subjective processes such as exile or the absence of a future, negative religious subjectivation, and syncretism, among others. Additionally, an analysis of the interviews was conducted, revealing similarities and differences between the subjectivity of the characters and individuals who experienced the COVID-19 pandemic.