LOVE AND FEAR IN TIMES OF PANDEMIC – STUCK TOGETHER
LOVE AND FEAR IN TIMES OF PANDEMIC – STUCK TOGETHER

Summary/Abstract: The focus of the present research is to study the conceptual metaphors that emerge from the French comedy “Stuck Together” which cover the social effects of the 2020 pandemic and show a humorous image of love, hate, fear and other emotions during panic attacks. The study’s endeavour is to understand the semantic markers which project the image of the pandemic and people’s reaction when facing the military measures of social distancing, lockdown, economic redirection, as well as psychological aspects of past and future “normalcy”. The viewers are plunged into the depths of reality and are forced to face their own psychological dramas while watching the movie. Thus, the research translates these emotional situations into conceptual metaphors which build the meaning by integrating the structure that give rise to more than the sum of its parts. Human imagination, as cognitive metaphor theorists claim, plays a crucial role in cognitive processes and in what it is to be human. Metaphors not only infiltrate within the language people use to express their emotions but also engage in the process of understanding the way in which emotional experience is being conceptualised. Therefore, the article relies on Conceptual Metaphor Theories and proposes a thorough analysis of positive as well as negative outcomes, and of the metaphorical mappings of love, hate and fear during the forced two months’ lockdown together with the psychological aspects generated by the threat of contagion, given the high coronavirus infection rate.

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