A Covid-19 time capsule: Framing, constructing and projecting memories of the UK’s Covid-19 lockdown

This article explores the metaphorical framing and construal of experiences during the Covid-19 lockdown, including the projection of memories, of the UK Government’s nationwide lockdown measures. Data were collected through a narrative survey aiming to capture the lived experience of lockdown and how respondents sought to remember the experiences of this public health intervention. The survey asked participants to explain and reflect on both life in lockdown at the time of response and to articulate “an image to remember lockdown by”. Findings indicate that respondents use conventionalised or expected ontologies (i.e. containers; orientational metaphors) to conceptualise lockdown in the present, whilst structural metaphors are used to contrast that present with an implicitly evoked past. Finally, the personification of nature is used to select intended memories to take into an imagined future. We argue that these projected memories act as a ‘time capsule’, where respondents selectively articulate memories based on contrasts between past and present experiences.