Metaphors of Infectious Disease in Eighteenth-Century Literature: Complex Comparatives in Daniel Defoe’s _A Journal of the Plague Year_ (1722)
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
Abstract
This essay argues that eighteenth-century literary depictions of infectious disease were never uniformly negative-- even when the disease was something as terrifying and dangerous as the Bubonic plague. Surveying the period's most commonplace disease metaphors-- disease as 'the enemy'; disease as foreign invader, immigrant, or import; disease as commodity, currency, or capital; and disease as visitor or tourist-- this essay demonstrates that eighteenth-century writers were alert to the connections between infection and charity or benevolence, as well as between infection and danger, corruption, and hostility.
Bibliographical metadata
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Literature and Medicine |
Subtitle of host publication | The Eighteenth Century |
Place of Publication | Cambridge |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Volume | 1 |
Publication status | Published - 28 Feb 2021 |
Publication series
Name | Literature and Medicine |
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Publisher | Cambridge University Press |