Immaginario politico e pandemia: tra comprensione e narrazione

This paper focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic crisis that is affecting the world, offering first reflections from the perspective of linguistics and the political imaginary. Starting from the frequent use of war metaphors in political speeches and the media, the first part of the questions raised concerns about the political effectiveness of this symbolic military framework regarding a virus, highlighting the sexuate and exclusive origin of this imaginary. In the second part, the reflection on pandemic language and imaginary questions the difficulty of understanding the originality of a phenomenon that has no immediate precedent in the contemporary world, transcending statistical urgency and data analysis. A ground for understanding will require time and distance, but it can be prepared by rethinking the narrative texture of lives, especially those that have disappeared, through the collective and symbolic value of the rites and stories they hand down. This value is even more significant in an era in which self-optimisation and acceleration have removed many limits on life.