Nina Pilz

Changing Perceptions of the Baltic Sea Region in the Pandemic Discourse. A Narratological Approach

The corona pandemic has a strong impact on social structures and processes, not least on public narration. An epochal crisis like the current pandemic challenges conventional narratives and requires new or modified narratives more appropriate for addressing novel issues.

The PhD project focuses on the corona pandemic as a turning point for public narratives about the Baltic Sea Region. Based on a corpus of German newspaper articles covering the pandemic, it aims to investigate how the public perception of Sweden and the federal state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has changed under the influence of the current crisis. The study examines journalistic texts as powerful units of discourse when it comes to shaping and establishing new narratives. The project combines methods of narratology with discourse and corpus linguistic approaches. Thus, it seeks to contribute to pandemic research in the field of narratology and discourse analysis.

Articles and book chapters

• “‘The Invention of a Pandemic.’ Conspiracy Argumentation in the German Alternative Newspaper Demokratischer Widerstand,” in Populism and Conspiracy Theory: Case Studies and Theoretical Perspectives, ed. Michael Butter, Katerina Hatzikidi, Constanze Jeitler, Giacomo Loperfido, and Lili Turza. Abingdon: Routledge, 2024, 154-180, https://www.routledge.com/Populism-and-Conspiracy-Theory-Case-Studies-and-Theoretical-Perspectives/Butter-Hatzikidi-Jeitler-Loperfido-Turza/p/book/9781032754215.
• “‘Nehmt euren Virus und haut ab in die Stadt, wo ihr herkommt!’ Literarische Stadt-Land-Narrative der Coronapandemie,” in Im Zeichen des Unverfügbaren. Literarische Selbst- und Fremdbilder im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert, ed. Yvonne Dudzik, Arne Klawitter, Martin Fietze and Hiroshi Yamamoto. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2022, 279-302, https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-6337-2.

Other

• “Landschaftserzählungen: Ålands Natur als Protagonistin,” [blog] Baltic Peripeties Blog, May 14, 2022, https://peripeties.uni-greifswald.de/landschaftserzahlungen/.
• Johnson, Uwe: Werkausgabe in 43 Bänden, Werke Bd. 4: Karsch und andere Prosa. Rostocker Ausgabe, ed. by Yvonne Dudzik and Christian Riedel, in cooperation with Nina Pilz, Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2021.

• “An Actantial Model for Narratives of Crisis: Discussing Greimas again,” presentation in the research group ‘Bildung’ in the Age of Algorithms, NTNU Trondheim, September 14, 2023.
• “Disease as Peripety – Negotiating Perspectives on Public and Philosophical Discourse” (with Victoria Oertel), international conference Negotiating Peripeties: Change and Its Narratives, organised by the IRTG Baltic Peripeties. Narratives of Reformations, Revolutions and Catastrophes, University of Greifswald, in cooperation with the Alfried Krupp Institute for Advanced Study Greifswald, May 25-27, 2023.
• “‘No Masks Anywhere. The Swedish Carelessness.’ Journalistic Narratives on Pandemic Strategies as a Collective Resource of Orientation,” workshop Literature as a Social Resource, organised by the research group “‘Bildung’ in the Age of Algorithms” and the project “Caregiving and Literature as a Remedium” at the NTNU Trondheim, in collaboration with Centre Universitaire de Norvège à Paris (CUNP), CUNP, Paris, April 24-26, 2023.
• Winner of poster prize for “Der Wahrnehmungswandel des Ostseeraums im Pandemiediskurs. Eine narratologische Annäherung,” 27. Deutscher Germanistentag 2022 Mehrdeutigkeiten, University of Paderborn, September 25-28, 2022.
• “Pandemie als Peripetie. Journalistische Wendenarrative im Coronadiskurs,” 6. Kongress des Mitteleuropäischen Germanistenverbandes Wende? Wenden!, Warmia and Mazury-University Olsztyn, September 22-24, 2022.
• “Corona Patriotism: Patriotic Pandemic Narratives in Sweden and Germany,” Interdisciplinary Centre for Baltic Sea Region Research (IFZO) annual conference Baltic Sea in Exchange. Transformations between Conflict and Cooperation, University of Greifswald, July 7-9, 2022.
• “Ostseeraumnarrative der Covid-19-Pandemie. Ein Dissertationsprojekt über das Erzählen von Raum und Regionen in Zeiten der Krise,” presentation at the Kolloquium für Neuere Deutsche Literatur, organised by Prof. Dr Eckhard Schumacher, University of Greifswald, June 29, 2022.
• “The Pandemic’s Protagonists: The Baltic Sea Region as an Example for Regional Narratives of the COVID-19 Pandemic,” 16th biannual conference of the Nordic Association for Literary Research (NorLit) Literature and Space, NTNU Trondheim, June 14-16, 2022.
• Participation in the PhD Seminar at the 16th biannual conference of the Nordic Association for Literary Research (NorLit) Literature and Space, NTNU Trondheim, June 14, 2022.
• “Regions as Pandemic Actors: Narratives on the Baltic Sea Region in Times of the Pandemic,” Regensburg Centre for International and Transnational Area Studies (CITAS) conference Crisis Narratives and the Pandemic, Regensburg, May 19-21, 2022.
• “Baltic Sea Region Narratives of the COVID-19 Pandemic,” workshop Narrating Illness and Crises: Social Construction of Roles and Norms, NTNU Trondheim, May 13-14, 2022.
• Participation in the workshop Tegneserier og psykisk helse i et utdanningsperspektiv, NTNU Trondheim, April 27-28, 2022.
• “The Invention of a Pandemic: Conspiracy Theory Reasoning in the German Left-Wing Newspaper ‘Demokratischer Widerstand’,” conference Conspiracy Theories and Leftwing Populism, organised by PACT (Populism and Conspiracy Theory) at the University of Tübingen, March 10-12, 2022.
• “‘Nehmt euren Virus und haut ab in die Stadt, wo ihr herkommt!’ Stadt-Land-Erzählungen der Pandemie,” workshop Literarische Selbst- und Fremdbilder im Zeichen des Unverfügbaren, in cooperation with Waseda University in Tokio, the DAAD and the Uwe Johnson-Forschungsstelle at the University of Rostock, November 26-28, 2021.
• Participation in the summer school Literary Studies and Digital Humanities, Leiden University (online), May 30 – June 2, 2021.