Course Details
Country:
Germany
Institution:
University of Mannheim
Course Title:
Contagious Disease in American Fiction
Course Number:
ANG 313
Course Description:
Covid-19 has triggered an increasing appeal of pandemic fiction. Lists of contagion novels are proliferating and show that the fear of infectious diseases and the invisible world of microbes has inspired and haunted authors from Jewish, Greek and Roman Antiquity to Giovanni Bocaccio, from Daniel Defoe to contemporary writers. Whereas during Antiquity and the Middle Ages epidemics were conceived of as divine punishment, the Enlightenment and the growing insights into the mechanisms of infection brought about a shift of focus in contagion narratives. Writers have started to problematize issues like isolation and survival, illness and the process of recovery, the post-pandemic desolation and the breakdown of infrastructures, but as well other anxieties lurking behind the fear of the invisible microbic enemy. This course will deal with fictional representations of contagious diseases – historical plagues, metaphorical fevers and fictitious epidemics – in American literature from the late 18th to the 21st
Language:
English
Approved Equivalent:
Pending For Approval
Attachment Files:
mannheim - ANG 313 - disease american fiction.docx
