Plague Punishment

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Plague and Punishment: Language, Trauma, and Keywords in Pandemic Discourse: How does religious language affect our perception of disease? How do metaphors clear or cloud our understanding of health? As human societies are confronted with novel contagions, we are also forced to grapple with the psychological and cultural impact that these illnesses have on society. This course uses practices of close reading and philological study to approach texts produced during significant pandemics. Poor understanding of disease causes panic, resulting not only in death and physical consequences, but also in religious intolerance, and discrimination toward the afflicted. We will take an interdisciplinary approach to textual production and genre, putting medical, religious, literary, and historical texts in conversation in order to better understand their reciprocal influences upon each other.