Pandemic Poetry Traumas and Creation
Pandemic Poetry Traumas and Creation
Pandemic Poetry Traumas and Creation
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Concept Note
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), a pandemic is the “worldwide
spread” of a new disease (24 Feb 2010). In the annals of human anthropology,
pandemics have been associated with human life across the globe. Humanity has
experienced severity of pandemics from time immemorial in their multifaceted and
manifold forms like “Spanish Flu” (1918) in East Asia, “The Blue Death”(1918) in
the USA., “The Great Parrot Fever Pandemic” (1929) in America, “Black Death”
(1347-1351) across Europe and Asia, “Asian Flu” (1957), “Hong Kong Flu” (1968)
in China, “The Philly Killer” (1976) in Pennsylvania, USA, “Swine Flu” (2009-
2010) in US, “HIV/AIDS” (1980s) in American gay communities, “Z” is for
“Zika” virus for 1947 till now in tropical Africa and Southeast Asia, SARS (Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome, 2002) in China and “Ebola” (2013-2016) in West
Africa, etc.
And the whole world has shed tears at deaths and demises of people due to
COVID-19 which is alleged to have originated in Wuhan, china in 2019 and is still
experiencing traumas and trials and tribulations of global pandemic. The whole
humanity is undergoing panic of life’s threats. Life has reached on the verge of
fear, anxiety, restlessness and uncertainty. The virus has claimed over a million
lives across the globe and it has led to people losing their loved ones. Howsoever
muscular, affluent and strategic they may, they are forced to experience bitter and
biting, inexpressible and inviolable anger of tough times caused by the
coronavirus. It isn’t distinguishing and discriminating between the haves and the
have-notes, causing great harm and wreaking havoc on world’s economy and life
alike. This has come before the world as cathartic metaphors in the disguises of
tsunamis, mutants, waves and strains. On 24 th April 2021, Delhi High Court, India,
said on COVID-19 crisis, “We’re calling it a wave. It is a Tsunami” (ndtv.com).
It has given a global message to humanity to be proactive rather than to be
reactive. In second wave of coronavirus, both the Indian Government and Medical
System were keeping pace with each other to control and curtail the cathartic
situation. In such severity, doctor and nurses, the heroes and heroines of the bitter
scenario, were trying their best to safeguard the life of the COVID-19 patients.
How the virus has effected traumas and shocks in the world’s socio-economic-
religio-politico and cultural life and landscape and how life’s trajectory has
undergone and borne a cathartic experience needs a critical analysis and
penetrating scanner. Driven by fear and anxiety, people’s behavioural patterns of
life have shifted from personal to impersonal and existential. They have confined
themselves to four walls and socially isolated putting on masks and employing
multiple measures how to keep themselves safe and secure. Literature, like life, is
not an exception to the trauma of stress and anxiety. The pandemic has traumatized
literature of the time so much that the feelings of ‘stress and strain,’ ‘fear and
anxiety,’ and ‘uncertainty and unpredictability’ are visibly expressed therein.
Good Greetings!
Most respectfully and with humble submission, I wish to bring to your kind notice
Pandemic Poetry:
that I am going to edit a book entitled
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The contributors are invited to submit their poetic contributions with reference to
various pandemics and epidemics ac cited above in the concept note. They are to
send their recent coloured photographs with their manuscripts and send their Email
IDs and WhatsApp numbers without fail.
Acceptance or rejection shall be the sole right of the Editorial team and the
contributors, if needed, may be asked for modification in their poetic contributions.
DR. RAJAN LAL (Editor-in chief)
Dr. Rajan Lal is Assistant Professor in the Department of English Studies and Research at JSH (PG) College,
Amroha, affiliated to MJPRU Bareilly, (UP), India. He has attended a couple of workshops on English language
teaching and literature. He is a bilingual author writing both in English and Hindi. He is a freelance poet, editor of
poetry and critic of research. He has to his credit thirty seven publications including seven ISBN books, “ Life and
Art of Kamala Das: New Perspectives (2020), World through Poetic Sensibility: A Congregation of Global Poets
(2020), World through Poetic Sensibility: A Congregation of Indian Poets (2021), Exploring Subalternity in
Literature: Critical Perspectives (2021), World through Poetic Renaissance: An Assembly of International Poets
(2021), “Exploring Pandemics and Disasters in Life and Literature: A Global Perspective (2021), “Environmental
Issues and Viable Participation through Literary Perspective (2021).”, thirteen chapters in ISBN books, eleven
research papers in national & international peer-reviewed & refereed journals and five poems in ISBN books and
one poem in ISSN journal, over a dozen paper presentations in national & international seminars and over fifty
webinars. He is senior Editor of The SPL Journal of Literary Hermeneutics: An International Journal of
Independent Critical Thinking, associate Editor of The Creative Launcher: An International, Open Access, Peer
Reviewed & Refereed E-Journal in English ISSN-2455-6580, Impact Factor: 6.564. He has been on the editorial
board of Pahal Horizon: An International Research Journal in Social Sciences, Humanities and Management ISSN
2456-4842. He is an active member of ELSA (English Literary Society of Agra) and life-time subscriber of Re-
Markings: A Biannual Refereed International Journal of English Letters, ISSN 0972-611X, Impact Factor: 11.489.
He is also an academic counsellor of English for IGNOU at his college. He books in the pipeline to be edited are
“Indian English Fiction since 2015: Reflections on Emerging Trends, Issues and Challenges.” “Indian and African-
American Feminism in the 21st Century: Emerging Trends, Issues and Challenges.” “Diasporic Dynamism between
the Lines of Home and Exile: Critical Insights.” and “Exploring Intertextuality in Literature: Global Praxes and
Perspectives.”
He specializes in Indian Writing in English, Women’s Studies and Diasporic Writings and also evinces his
interest in English Language and Literature, American Literature, Diaspora Literature, LGBT Literature, Literary
Criticism, and Contemporary Critical Theory.