Corona fictions agents: Cinematic representations of hopeful pandemic protagonists in early corona fictions

During the Covid-19 pandemic numerous early Corona Fictions (including films) emerged, creating a multitude of pandemic protagonists across media. The aim of this article is to examine these protagonists of two European Corona Fictions comedies: 8 Rue de l'Humanité (2021) and ¡Ni te me acerques! (2020). Applying Stuart Hall's (1997) circuit of culture lens (encoding/decoding model), as well as various concepts of hope (e.g. Snyder 2002, Grodal 2006 and 2017, Van den Heuvel 2020), essential aspects of the comedy genre and film analysis (e.g. Eder 2008, Krützen 2006, Grodal 2005), the results of this study support the idea that reclaiming agency is an essential factor for fictional pandemic protagonists when coping with lockdowns and other pandemic restrictions. Both films, thus, demonstrate that comedy is particularly appropriate for the portrayal of transformational processes of initially fearful or anxiety-driven protagonists becoming hopeful Corona Fictions agents in the end.