Pandemic and its Impact on the Rural Youth: Teaching Resilience through Literature

Abstract

Writers have responded to contemporary epidemics and diseases in their own unique ways depending on which disease or illness is represented. They have found expression in varied forms of literature. It has been a medium of projecting sympathetic, empathetic, and realistic points of views. On scrutiny, one can find references of the social responses to pandemics available in literature, like interaction among human beings and interface between people and state, and what strategies were followed/adopted to maintain health systems. Further, illness does not necessarily mean only the physical. It can be psychological as well, which the writers often identify and represent in their works. It would, therefore, be fruitful to consider psychoanalytic theory in the context of the effects and consequences of a pandemic. A poem or prose not only mirrors the world around or imparts wisdom or acts as a matter-of-fact project possibility, but is also a reliable source that soothes the mind, body, and soul. It has a therapeutic impact, especially when preserving life is the primary objective and concern. Research has also shown that bibliotherapy is a treatment for various ailments, like depression and mood upliftment, preventing dementia, and cognitive ageing. Considering all these, the paper seeks to identify, while developing an understanding of pandemics, how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the youth, particularly girls aged 17-21 in select rural areas of Haryana, its social, economic, and psychological consequences, and draw certain signposts that can work as a steering to an inclusive and resilient society.

Keywords: Pandemic, Youth, Resilience, Psychoanalysis

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