Contagionism and Contagious Diseases
( spectrum Literaturwissenschaft / spectrum Literature )
Publication series ：spectrum Literaturwissenschaft / spectrum Literature
Publisher： De Gruyter
Publication year： 2013
E-ISBN: 9783110306118
P-ISBN(Paperback): 9783110305722
Subject： I0-05 Literature and other sciences)
Keyword： 一般理论,世界文学
Language： ENG
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Description
Understanding how ‘contagion’ and ‘infection’ have become powerful metaphors requires a historical reconstruction of this semantic field in the late 19th and early 20th century, when these concepts acquired a scientific meaning. The volume offers an interdisciplinary approach to the cultural history of contagionism between medical bacteriology, the social sciences and literary adaptations. The symbolic implications of ‘contagion’ and high-profile contagious diseases are addressed, which mark the boundaries between sick and healthy, familiar and alien, morally pure and impure.
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