Plague Writing in Early Modern England
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17th century
A01=Ernest B. Gilman
Author_Ernest B. Gilman
ben jonson
bubonic plague
Category=DSBD
Category=DSK
christian belief
defoe
divine justice
early modern england
epidemics
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
faith
global pandemic
great britain
history of medicine
john donne
london
medical tracts
natural disasters
pepys
pious exhortations
political commentary
preachers
regime change
religion
satirical pamphlets
sermons
super viruses
urban centers
Product details
- ISBN 9780226294094
- Weight: 539g
- Dimensions: 16 x 24mm
- Publication Date: 01 May 2009
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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During the seventeenth century, England was beset by three epidemics of the bubonic plague, each outbreak claiming between a quarter and a third of the population of London and other urban centers. Surveying a wide range of responses to these epidemics - sermons, medical tracts, pious exhortations, satirical pamphlets, and political commentary - "Plague Writing in Early Modern England" brings to life the many and complex ways Londoners made sense of such unspeakable devastation. Ernest B. Gilman argues that the plague writing of the period attempted unsuccessfully to rationalize the catastrophic and that its failure to account for the plague as an instrument of divine justice fundamentally threatened the core of Christian belief. Gilman also trains his critical eye on the works of Jonson, Donne, Pepys, and Defoe, which, he posits, can be more fully understood when put into the context of this century-long project to "write out" the plague.
Ultimately, "Plague Writing in Early Modern England" is more than a compendium of artifacts of a bygone era; it holds up a distant mirror to reflect our own condition in the age of AIDS, super viruses, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, and the hovering threat of a global flu pandemic.
Ernest B. Gilman is professor of English at New York University. He is the author of three books, including Iconoclasm and Poetry in the English Reformation, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
