Resumo

TEMBO, Nick Mdika. Anxious Competition: Exploring the Poetic Imaginarium of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Malawi. JLS [online]. 2022, vol.38, n.1, pp.1-18. ISSN 1753-5387.  https://doi.org/10.25159/1753-5387/10418.

As I write this article in mid-September 2021, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has claimed the lives of nearly 4.7 million people and over 228 million others have been infected worldwide. This article explores the poetic imaginarium of the coronavirus, focusing on how selected Malawian poets imagine the devastation wrought on human beings by the pandemic in their poetry. Specifically, it considers how selected poems in Walking the Battlefield: An Anthology of Malawian Poetry on the COVID-19 Pandemic-a book edited by Martin Juwa, William Mpina and Beaton Galafa- explore the chaos, shock and bewilderment brought on by COVID-19. I also argue that a reading of the poems allows for an opening up of a discursive debate on the hope and indomitable resilience of the human spirit when confronted by life-threatening contagions.

Palavras-chave : COVID-19; resilience; contagion; poetic imaginarium; hope.

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