Introduction: Iterations of Friendship and Community

Abstract:This introduction charts the editors' evolving understanding of the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for literary studies in the real time of the crisis. Oriented around the themes of friendship and community, the introduction articulates the overall ambition of the issue as one of maintaining an engaged intellectual community during the isolation imposed by the pandemic. Foregrounding narrative as the issue's major emphasis, it describes how the issue engages with pandemic storytelling in relation to literary history and literary production, environmental literary studies, and higher education and the profession. Finally, it provides an overview of the issue's sections and essays.