The event aspires to bring together scholars to discuss the figurative facets of the coronavirus pandemic. We are daily confronted with verbal and nonverbal ways in which the pandemic is conceptualized and expressed. It is manifested figuratively, via metaphors, metonymies, hyperboles, ironies, similes,…. Moreover, though one can identify, up to a degree, commonalities in its expression across languages and cultures (see the “ReFrame COVID” initiative by Koller et al), interestingly enough there are striking idiosyncrasies. This can be seen through verbal but also through pictorial or verbo-pictorial cues (cartoons, comics, memes, animation) in newspapers, in TV programs, and in any social, cultural, political, or ideological framework.
