Psychoanalytic Perspectives on The COVID-19 Pandemic in Sarah Hall’s Burntcoat and Sarah Moss’s The Fell

Abstract

Globally, pandemics and epidemics have been largely argued in literature. The calamity of COVID-19 has largely paralyzed individuals and societies. The research deals with fictional responses of individuals who are infected by coronavirus and the impact of the virus on the way of coping with each other and with the surrounding. The research deals with two English novels; Burntcoat (2021) by Sarah Hall and The Fell (2021) by Sarah Moss. These novels are chosen for the critical analysis due to the variety of themes. The texts chosen depict experiences of the victim characters during quarantine. The objectives of the research are to identify the characters that experienced the pandemic, analyzing their unconscious behavior. This will be done according to the Freudian psychoanalytic theory. Also, to examine the responses of the infected characters to the calamity based on Cathy Caruth’s trauma theory. And to show the impact of coronavirus on the selected characters in coping with others relaying on Judith Herman’s PTSD. The aim is to explore themes of isolation, dislocation, unconsciousness, and hysteria. This will be discussed within the limits of the main concepts of the psychoanalytic theory.