Political, Horrific and Beatific Heroism: Compliance and the NHS during Covid-19, A Post- Structuralist Discourse Analysis.

This thesis explored the NHS heroism which emerged during the first Covid-19 lockdown in the UK. It problematises and analyses the hero narrative which dominated social space and discourse using the post-structuralist logics approach. Discourses of NHS heroism were analysed using media and political sources. This thesis identified and articulated the social, political and fantasmatic logics which inferred and maintained heroism. The first finding was that a central social logic of compliance was identified; namely, collective mobilisation of everyday social practices was signified by submission, obedience, and individual responsibility. The second finding was that the social logics were facilitated by a political logic of equivential heroisation. Namely, heroism functioned as a process in which all social actors (the public/ NHS staff) were / could be heroes if they acted compliantly. The final finding pertained to the fantasmatic logics, which demarcated why social actors were so heavily invested in heroising. The beatific fantasy findings indicated that people were emotionally gripped by a fantasy that if the NHS/ the public acted heroically and compliantly, they would overcome a perceived and collective national enemy (Covid-19). Conversely, the horrific findings indicated that social actors were gripped by a fantasy that anti heroic and non-compliant behaviour would lead to death and destruction. The findings of this research are significant because they highlight the multifaced and complex ways in which the NHS can be used as a vessel by hegemonic forces of power to mobilise responses (passively or actively) within society. Furthermore, though not directly explored within this thesis, this research may support the plight of NHS workers in improving pay and standards through the evidencing of heroism as an empty political tool.