Changing Configurations of Día de Muertos during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This pioneering book explores new configurations of Día de Muertos during COVID-19 within considerations of how the pandemic has shaped ideas about death and dying differently. It investigates how commemorative and mourning practices changed in Mexico during the turbulent years of 202021 and, through its innovative case studies of Mexican communities in Ireland and the UK, asks how the festival contributed in all three regions to global conversations about grief, mental health, and gender-based violence. We offer original analysis of Día de Muertos expressions including marches, dance performances, masks, film, and calavera poetry, alongside online and digital community and home-based creative gestures. Our analysis reveals how Mexicans and Mexicans abroad have engaged with the rich compendium of Día de Muertos symbolic and narrative systems in order to discuss how COVID-19 has re-framed ideas of loss and renewal more widely.

Explores pandemic reconfigurations of the Mexican Day of Dead/Día de Muertos commemorative practice Offers wider considerations of how the pandemic has shaped ideas about death and dying differently Provides original textual, literary and (audio) visual analysis of Día de Muertos gestures and expressions

Autorentext

Jane E. Laver y is Associate Professor in Latin American Studies, University of Southampton, UK. She works on contemporary Mexican and Latin American visual, cultural and literary studies with a focus on gender, the Día de Muertos, multimedia production and digital humanities.

Nuala Finnegan is Professor in Spanish and Latin American Studies, University College Cork, Ireland. She researches contemporary Mexican literary and visual studies with a particular concentration on gender, gender-based violence and cultural production.

Klappentext

This pioneering book offers insights into new configurations of Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead ) during the COVID-19 pandemic within wider considerations of how the pandemic has shaped ideas about death and dying differently. It explores how commemorative and mourning practices changed in Mexico during the turbulent years of 202021 and, through its innovative case studies of Mexican communities in Ireland and the UK, asks how the festival contributed to global conversations about grief, mental health, and gender-based violence. Drawing from original textual and visual analysis, the book engages with a range of Día de Muertos expressions including masks, marches, altar-building, film, dance performance, calavera (skull) poetry production and community and home-based creative gestures, both online and in person. Through this analysis, we investigate how Mexicans and Mexicans abroad engaged with the rich compendium of Día de Muertos symbolic and narrative systems in order to discuss how the pandemic has framed ideas around loss and renewal more widely.

Jane E. Lavery is Associate Professor in Latin American Studies in the Department of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics at the University of Southampton, UK. She has published extensively in contemporary Mexican and Latin American visual, cultural and literary studies with a focus on gender, the Día de Muertos , multimedia production and digital humanities.

Nuala Finnegan is Professor in the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies at University College Cork, Ireland. Director of the Centre for Mexican Studies until 2023, she has published widely in contemporary Mexican literary and visual studies with a particular focus on gender, gender-based violence and cultural production.

Inhalt

Chapter 1: Día de Muertos during the COVID-19 Pandemic.- Chapter 2: Commemorative Shifts and Transformations to Día de Muertos in Mexico in 2020-21.- Chapter 3: 'Contagious' Feminist Interventions and Cultural Politics: Marcha de las Catrinas, Día de Muertas , and Calaveritas Pandémicas 2020-21.- Chapter 4: Creative and Digital Placemaking: Home and Community Responses to Día de Muertos in the UK and Ireland (2020).- Chapter 5: Constructing Spaces of Renewal: Community Responses to Día de Muertos in the UK and Ireland (2021).- Chapter 6: Calaveras Pandémicas: A Decolonial Archive of Pandemic Poetry.- Chapter 7: PostScript: Día de Muertos 2022 and Beyond.