I’m re-upping an old augmenter’s post of my own that may help us think with greater precision about Defoe’s novel as a novel. One version comes from Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, which he began writing in 1771 and was first published in 1790. In a passage I particularly love, Franklin, who spent his formative years setting […]
Read More →Archive for September, 2019
Plague time: balance between social order and restrictive policies
This scientific paper aims at highlighting the importance of accurate and calculated social and political measures which were beneficial at curbing the spread of the Plague Epidemics during the 17th and 18th centuries on the Ionian islands. The emphasis is on the lack of scientific knowledge regarding the epidemic. In spite of this, the authorities […]
Read More →SARS Outbreak in China
SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) is an animal virus said to have spread from civet cats to humans first in the Guangdong province of southern China in 2002. The SARS epidemic affected 26 countries and resulted in thousands of deaths. In a 2003 article from The Irish Times, we notice similarities between Defoe’s depiction of […]
Read More →Map of the Plague Year
The narrator’s description of the plague is interlaced with numerous detailed explanations and geographic anchor points, but to a non-Londonian audience these places sound very foreign (and probably even for Londonian audiences the archaic names are unfamiliar). Most confusing of all is the narrator’s discussion of the plague not having reached the City even though […]
Read More →Defoe: DePlague
Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year is a unique text which provides both historical fact and emotional narrative in order to portray the experience of London during the plague. Defoe references (or re-creates) Bills of Mortality, policies, signs on door, etc. throughout his piece, which gives the text a historical tone, yet he weaves personal […]
Read More →Setting up shop with The Decameron
Allow me to point you to two older convener’s posts for The Decameron. I’m especially drawn to the following questions: What does it mean that Boccaccio directly addresses a female reading public at the outset? How might this invocation — and the predominance of female characters — give us meaningful inroads to discuss gender and […]
Read More →There is not one of you whose sickness equals mine
We’ll want to encounter Oidipous/Oedipus on the text’s own terms, and so pay attention to what this translation tells you about its title character, or what he tells you about himself. Think too about how you would summarize this story. Where would you start? With the King addressing his people? With the Priest describing the […]
Read More →Keywords: Rhizome
Our discussions of Tony Sampson’s Virality this week will almost certainly send you Googling some names and terms. Among Sampson’s most important influences are Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. We’ll regard them as rabbit holes you can head down if you’re interested in further reading — and we’ll bring them up again, at least briefly, […]
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