Realism has predominated in discussions about the coronavirus pandemic where politicians, authorities, and commentators debate over the substance and consequence of scientific facts. But while biology played a crucial role in triggering the pandemic, the resulting crisis developed through a social process. In this paper, I argue that the coronavirus pandemic in Britain was successfully framed as a crisis, but that the ritualization of solidarity normally generated by this meaning was compromised. Through an analysis of media coverage and official statements from the government, I trace the discursive construction of the crisis through the deployment of battle metaphors. Building on this discourse analysis, I show how the symbolic alignment of the pandemic and the Second World War revived symbols and tropes that informed the cultural construction of pandemic heroes. To explain why the intensity of the crisis framing was not matched in ritual performance, I consider how the government’s ambiguous policies and erratic social performance produced a state of indefinite liminality, subverting solidarity processes in lockdown. The paper offers insight into the experience of anomie during the pandemic and contributes to the strong program in cultural sociology by incorporating the crisis approach in disaster studies into the social drama framework.

中文翻译：

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锁定时间的标记：冠状病毒大流行期间英国的英雄化和仪式化

在有关冠状病毒大流行的讨论中，现实主义占主导地位，政治家、当局和评论员就科学事实的实质和后果进行辩论。但是，虽然生物学在引发大流行方面发挥了关键作用，但由此产生的危机是通过社会过程发展起来的。在本文中，我认为英国的冠状病毒大流行被成功地定义为一场危机，但通常由这种含义产生的团结的仪式化受到了损害。通过对媒体报道和政府官方声明的分析，我通过部署战斗隐喻来追溯危机的话语建构。在此话语分析的基础上，我展示了流行病和第二次世界大战的象征性结合如何复兴了为流行病英雄的文化建设提供信息的符号和比喻。为了解释为什么危机框架的强度与仪式表现不匹配，我考虑了政府模棱两可的政策和反复无常的社会表现如何产生了一种不确定的限制状态，颠覆了封锁中的团结进程。该论文深入了解了大流行期间失范的经历，并通过将灾难研究中的危机方法纳入社会戏剧框架，为文化社会学的强大计划做出了贡献。我考虑了政府模棱两可的政策和反复无常的社会表现如何产生了一种不确定的限制状态，颠覆了封锁中的团结进程。该论文深入了解了大流行期间失范的经历，并通过将灾难研究中的危机方法纳入社会戏剧框架，为文化社会学的强大计划做出了贡献。我考虑了政府模棱两可的政策和反复无常的社会表现如何产生了一种不确定的限制状态，颠覆了封锁中的团结进程。该论文深入了解了大流行期间失范的经历，并通过将灾难研究中的危机方法纳入社会戏剧框架，为文化社会学的强大计划做出了贡献。