COVID Semiotics: Magical Thinking and the Management of Meaning

This book examines how people around the world have articulated and shaped their experiences of COVID-19 through a sociolinguistic phenomenon known as magical thinking. Using case studies from throughout the world – China, Egypt, Europe, Jordan, Thailand, East Jerusalem, the UK, and the United States – this volume looks at how people managed ambiguity and uncertainty, risk, and social isolation by viewing their experiences of the pandemic as other than, or alongside, those presented by voic...