During Distance Learning @ISB, one of the assignments for my English class was to research the context of production and reception of six texts which are all related to pandemics which occured in the past.
With billions of people around the world in quarantine and lockdown mode, and most being bored with nothing to do, we can use this time to read some pieces of pandemic literature.
Therefore, I decided to present my research to this task in the form of a website accessible to everyone, which contains summaries of the following pieces of pandemic literature:
- The Iliad by Homer
- The Old Testament by Moses
- Thucydides’ Description
- A Litany in Time of Plague by Thomas Nashe
- Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
- La Peste by Albert Camus
Plague in an Ancient City (oil on canvas)
Painting depicting the Plague of Athens
By Michiel Sweerts, c. 1652–1654
For the summaries of these pieces and more details, feel free to check out the full website at: https://sites.google.com/isbasel.ch/pandemic-literature
By Raunak Potnis