SCHC 453 H02 28842

Humanities, EngLit, AIU

Notes:

This course investigates literary representations of the impact of epidemics and pandemics as they affected different societies and cultures around the globe throughout history. Starting with the Black Death in the 14thcentury, to the Plague, Cholera, the Spanish Flu, and various other infectious diseases, to current representations of post-apocalyptic worlds affected by global pandemics, the societal and cultural implications can be studied in the literature that seeks to grapple with them.  Students will read, in chronological order, important works that take stock and describe the outbreaks of infectious diseases, or that seek to provide a refuge and distract from the terror of current events while populations are quarantined. In addition to taking into account the multiplicity of literary genres, the course will investigate various different responses to pandemics in distinct cultural and geographic settings (most notably, Italy, Germany, England, Northern Africa, South America, and the United States of America). While comparing different regions of the world, and asking what types of responses are or are not to be expected in different cultures, the course also considers how poverty, race, societal standing, sex, and gender are affected by and contributors to different fates and outcomes of individual case encounters. Students are expected to read all the works on the primary reading list. Assignments will consist of short reading responses (3 papers) and one long presentation centering on one of the readings. There will be two short answer exams (one midterm and one final). The long presentation will become a research paper of 8-10 pages. The reading list may include, but is not limited to:  The Last Man (Mary Shelley, 1826), Death in Venice (Thomas Mann, 1912), Pale Horse, Pale Rider (Katherine Anne Porter, 1935), The Stand (Stephen King, 1978), and Love in the Time of the Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1985). ***This course is not suitable for incoming freshmen unless he/she has a strong background in English or a special interest in the reading list.***