What a journey! We have traveled to so many places such as Ancient Greece and Pre-Industrial London where we have seen how plague affects human society. In Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, we see a recurring theme of truth that has emerged in other books we have read, especially in Oedipus. Similar to the Greek tragedy, the […]
Read More →Archive for February, 2015
Alexander Pushkin… A man died in a duel? (An episode of the play is also attached)
Hi Class, While we closely examine and analyze Pushkin’s play, it will be interesting to also briefly look at his life and background! As one of the most significant poets in Russian history, Alexander Pushkin greatly affected future literature. At the same time, this big figure also has a dramatic life! Though the characters in […]
Read More →Who’s feasting today?
On the 23rd of July 2014, Barack Obama spoke at a $32,400 per plate fundraiser. Meanwhile, Vladimir Yakunin, a Russian businessman whose assets are being frozen and his visas blocked, updated his Facebook page with pictures of his family sailing in the Caribbean. These factoids are especially crucial to us, analysts of Pushkin’s ‘A Feast […]
Read More →Hyper Empathy Syndrome
In this week’s class discussion on Pushkin’s A Feast During the Plague, we often touched upon the topic of empathy, which was great because if there’s anything at all that arouses my interest more than books it’s psychology. So for this week’s post I’ve combined my love of both to bring you an exciting new…BOOK RECOMMENDATION! I’ve […]
Read More →Contagion: The movie!
Below I have attached the trailer of the movie, that goes by the name Contagion. This movie is an attempt to depict what might happen if a deadly pandemic takes place in 21st Century.The movie documents the spread of the virus transmitted by formites. The virus causes global pandemic and nobody knows its cure until […]
Read More →Feast-Microcosm, Escape of Reality?
As we continue to read and contemplate on the topic of contagion, in A Feast During the Plague, we see different responses of people to the plagues or diseases. But, it is interesting to note that there is a common recurrent reaction to the plague among the books we have read or discussed. In Pushkin’s […]
Read More →Spreading the Contagion
Who is responsible for spreading a contagion? Is there a responsibility that comes when someone is infected? Should the infected or the healthy take care? The act of shutting up houses in Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year is prevention against irresponsible behaviour of infecting others. Brockden’s Arthur Mervyn presents the view when the contagion […]
Read More →Frenchmen, Haitian Slaves and War! Oh My!
With our talk about racism in our Mervyn discussion today I thought it would be important to establish some context in that time period. Here you can find a history of the Haitian Revolution. I find it very interesting that America did become somewhat involved in the revolution. American leaders rushed to help the white […]
Read More →Recurring Themes: Sacrifice, Loyalty and Determination
The story of Arthur Mervyn (1799) by Charles Brockden Brown was based on the yellow fever epidemic that had struck Philadelphia, then the capital of America, in 1793. The novel’s prominent themes include sacrifice, loyalty and determination. As is evident below, these themes are interlinked and are essential forces that drive the characters and the […]
Read More →Every day is like Sunday
I stumbled across this “pocket history” of the plague in London, 1348-1665, produced by the Museum of London, and the line “One eyewitness said that London became so quiet that every day was like a Sunday” made me think of Morrissey’s apocalyptic anthem from the start of my Cold War college years. Enjoy. For Defoe-related material […]
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