Article ID: CBB884806812

Epidemics Have Lost the Plot (2020)

unapi

This article draws on Charles Rosenberg's classic essay "What Is an Epidemic?" (1989) to reflect on the complex narrative structures and temporalities of epidemics as they are experienced and storied. We begin with an analysis of Rosenberg's use of Albert Camus's The Plague and a discussion of how epidemics have been modeled in literature and in epidemiology concomitantly. Then, we argue that Charles Rosenberg's characterization of epidemics as events bounded in time that display narrative and epidemiological purity fails to account for the reinvention of life within health crises. Adopting the ecological, archaeological, and anthropological perspectives developed within African studies enriches the range of available plots, roles, and temporal sequences and ultimately transforms our way of depicting epidemics. Instead of events oriented toward their own closure, epidemics might be approached as unsettling, seemingly endless periods during which life has to be recomposed.

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Authors & Contributors
Alberto Luongo
Cilli, Elisabetta
Taureaux, Niurka
Pandolfi, Massimo
Delgado Valdivia, Jatniel
Traversari, Mirko
Concepts
Epidemics
Public health
Medicine and society
Narratology
Medicine
Plague
Time Periods
21st century
19th century
20th century
18th century
20th century, late
14th century
Places
Italy
Sicily
South Asia
Republic of Liberia
Hong Kong
Singapore
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