OSMIŠLJAVANJE SMRTI I STRAH OD SMRTI ILITI COVID, SMRT I BABA
CONCEPTIONS OF DEATH AND THE FEAR OF DEATH, OR, COVID, DEATH AND OLD WOMEN

Summary/Abstract: This paper compares current narratives about COVID-19 on various websites and in the daily press with strategies of presenting death and diseases in oral folklore. As a holistic and consistent system, the folklore model of the world has no “lacunae” when it comes to the cause, meaning and purpose of events. Therefore, serious illnesses and sudden deaths (deaths which are not a consequence of choice, epic feats, “natural” old age, etc.) are conceived of as a result of a curse, ancestral sin, etc. However, the same strategy also characterizes works of pop culture, which speaks to the fundamental human need to “explain” death. During the COVID-19 pandemic in Croatia, COVID-19 patients’ deaths were regularly presented in the news accompanied by information that they were old, suffered from diabetes or cancer, were undergoing dialysis, were obese, etc. In this way, neutral information about COVID-19 deaths was transformed into information which created the concept of a “protected” majority (young, healthy population). In this case, the fear of death relied on the discriminatory concept of the Other, which also testifies to opposites present in conceptualizing otherness in folklore and urban narratives (sin vs. disease / old age).

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