Wirklichkeitserzählungen als narrative Netzwerke. Polyphone Erzählprozesse im virtuellen Raum als gemeinschaftsbildende Erfahrungsbewältigung

Abstract

During the Covid-19 crisis, participatory, co-creative narrative projects emerged which tried to open spaces for coping with the experiences of the pandemic. Digital networked media offered a means not only to document and archive everyday stories, but also to create virtual communities. This article transfers concepts from narrative theory such as ‘polyphony’ and ‘networked narrative’ and applies them in analysing two paradigmatic projects: Corona Diaries, an audio-based database, and Corona Haikus, launched as a Facebook group for visual poetry. Though different as to their specific medial affordances, these projects reveal the potential of collective narrative processes to deal with otherwise ungraspable cataclysmic times.