Coronavirus narratives and rites of passage: structural and typological similarities

The article provides a comparative structural and typological analysis of coronavirus narratives with rites of passage based on bodily states (body code). The purpose of the analysis is to clarify ideas about the change in the status and condition of people who have had coronavirus. In the structure of the narrative and rites of passage, structural and semantic elements were identified - the designation of bodily sensations associated with a violation of the normal functioning of an individual organ or group of organs and the whole organism. According to the author, the liminal state at the level of physicality can be described with the help of the binary opposition "alive -dead", correlated with the work of the whole organism and individual organs. Patients with coronavirus and participants in the rites of passage are deprived of the ability to move, see, hear, smell, etc. During the severe form of the coronavirus, the sick felt like they were dying and then were being reborn as participants in the rites of passage. Coronavirus is not only a disease, a pathology, it is also a crisis. The author concludes that the similarity of the structural and semantic elements of the narratives about the coronavirus and the rites of passage is confirmed by the fact that they are based on the operation of the same mechanism: the experience of death - rebirth (archetypal or transpersonal). After suffering a coronavirus infection, the status of a person changes, unlike the rites of passage, the status usually decreases. Some patients are endowed with supernatural powers after an illness. The coronavirus disease, which has changed behavior, the status of people, social reality, can most - to some extent - be considered as a rite of passage, but additional research is required to draw final conclusions.

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