The rapidly burgeoning literature surrounding COVID-19 pandemic
fetishistically and prematurely tried to catch the academic momentum, taking
almost an a priori, non-debatable, starting point of the conceptualization
of the pandemic as the ?new normal?. In Pandemic: COVID-19 Shakes the World
and Pandemic! 2: Chronicles of a Time Lost, Slavoj Zizek frames the pandemic
as multiple global crises, arguing it will aggressively and drastically
rupture the global societal norms and dynamics creating a new order.
However, did it? This essay debates this question through the theoretical
lenses of Badiou?s Event. It starts by laying down the fundamental
theoretical principles and mapping the necessary criteria needed to be
fulfilled in order for a happening to be named an Event. Further, it
navigates through ideas and arguments presented in Zizek?s publications
localizing the pandemic?s global characteristics. Finally, it theoretically
deconstructs them providing us with the fundamental answer to the question
what COVID-19 pandemic is: a Badiouian event that has/is/will construct the
global ?new normal?, multiple consequential crises, or just a temporary
situation that reaffirms the existing societal normatives worldwide.
BOOK REVIEW: "PANDEMIC PANIC! VOL. 2: CHRONICLES OF A TIME LOST."