‘Together, soon enough’

Abstract

Abstract Orienting to theoretical descriptions of ‘affective-discursive practices’ (Wetherell, 2012) and linguistic/semiotic landscapes as ‘affective regimes’ ( Wee, 2016 ), this paper accounts for (some of) the complex ways in which the experience of pandemic and lockdown was articulated and felt across the landscape of Melbourne. I employ a novel combination of autoethnographic and citizen sociolinguistic approaches as self-reflexive research techniques. Working more-or-less chronologically, from the lowest ebbs to feelings of (relative) joy, importantly, this paper does not focus solely on negative articulations such as sadness or anxiety. Rather, it examines the affective resonance of expressions of love, kindness, and resilience in the landscape, and these affects’ intersection with chronotopes during and since isolation; from being locked down, to keeping spirits up, from top-down to bottom-up. This paper concludes with an orientation to hope: to Melburnians’ rejoicing in what they’ve achieved, and the belief that there can be an end to crisis.

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