Remembering and Narrativising COVID-19: An Early Sociological Take

Sociology. 2023 Jun;57(3):700-705. doi: 10.1177/00380385221142503. Epub 2023 Jan 31.

Abstract

How the COVID-19 pandemic, and the deaths that occurred during the acute phase of the pandemic (2020-2021), will be remembered is yet to be determined. Writing from a UK perspective, this short article reflects on the way in which memory, narratives and death are constructed, contested and (re)produced. Drawing on the authors' respective sociological sub-fields, it makes a case for an ongoing sociological appraisal of emergent COVID-19 narratives, that can encompass and intertwine understandings of temporality, accountability and loss.

Keywords: COVID-19; death; memory; narrative; pandemic; temporality.