Iconography of the corpse in the public sphere: presence and absence of the dead body in times of pandemic

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• dc.contributor.author Benavente, Fran
• dc.contributor.author Fillol, Santi, 1977-
• dc.contributor.author Salvadó Corretger, Glòria
• dc.date.accessioned 2022-01-03T12:58:39Z
• dc.date.available 2022-01-03T12:58:39Z
• dc.date.issued 2021
• dc.description.abstract In this article, we examine the visual motif of the corpse and its presence in the public sphere in times of pandemic from an iconographic, political and anthropological perspective. Through the analysis of the representation of the dead body in images presented by modern media, we reflect on how the formal and iconographic schemes of presentation of death were transformed following the irruption of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. The pandemic scheme, which is unusual from a political and anthropological perspective, assumes a particular approach to the problem of the representation of the dead body (anonymous body, carrier of a virus), encrypted in a dialectic between systematic omission and censorship and displacement of the representation of death towards the cumulative symmetry of empty pits or coffins that prefigure the corpse to come. Pandemic iconography, often based on science fiction imagery, outlines the dehumanized restlessness of a dystopian future. Under these exceptional conditions, some corpses, which are a priori anonymous, stand out, showing, even in the suspended space of Covid-19, the permanence of structural schemes of violence that must be denounced and fought in the present. With that in mind, we also examine the corpses claimed by Black Lives Matter and their distinctive representations, which are very different from those of the victims of the epidemic. Finally, through these references and based on the media treatment of Diego Armando Maradona’s body, we consider the significance of the return of the iconic corpse to the center of the public sphere, which imposes a regime of extreme visibility and goes beyond the representative limits of pandemic exceptionality.
• dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
• dc.identifier.citation Benavente Burian F, Fillol S, Salvadó-Corretger, G. J, Pintor Iranzo I. Iconography of the corpse in the public sphere: presence and absence of the dead body in times of pandemic. Communication & society. 2021;34(2):433-47. DOI:10.15581/003.34.2.433-447
• dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.15581/003.34.2.433-447
• dc.identifier.issn 0214-0039
• dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/52161
• dc.language.iso eng
• dc.publisher Universidad de Navarra
• dc.relation.ispartof Communication & society. 2021;34(2):433-47
• dc.rights Communication & Society is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0.
• dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
• dc.rights.uri https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• dc.subject.keyword Corpse
• dc.subject.keyword Visual motif
• dc.subject.keyword COVID-19
• dc.subject.keyword Balck Lives Matter
• dc.subject.keyword Iconography
• dc.subject.keyword Death
• dc.subject.keyword Visual culture
• dc.title Iconography of the corpse in the public sphere: presence and absence of the dead body in times of pandemic
• dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
• dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion