First-Year Seminar: Contagion and Culture: Lessons from Italy

A study of the ailing Body Politic, as manifested in Italy during various pandemics. We focus on literary and aesthetic responses to the 1348 bubonic plague pandemic syphilis the 16th c., tuberculosis and cholera in the 19th c., and Covid-19. Using critical and creative tools, we study literature, chronicles, medical treatises, and study manuscripts, works of art, architecture, and cartography. Taught in English; no knowledge of Italian required.