Discourse Analysis Faced with the Coronavirus Crisis: A Few Thoughts

Discourse studies are indeed a field of research firmly anchored in history and discourse analysts cannot ignore the transformations of the world in which they work. Like any social science, they are challenged by the covid-19 pandemic, which is likely to impact on its concepts and practices. In this article, I examine some points that seem interesting from this perspective: first, the relevance of the notions of “discursive moment” and popularisation to describe the production generated by the epidemics; second, the crucial role of figures in its representation. Finally, I study the way enunciations that claim to be therapeutic shape “endogenous” crises in their own text, in response to the health crisis.

KEYWORDS:
Covid-19; Discursive moment; Popularisation; Numbers; Crisis