Special issue ‘Reading (in) the Epidemic’

On the role of reading and the function of literature in times of crisis

Literary scholar Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf has published a special issue entitled ‘Reading (in) the Epidemic’ on literature in times of epidemics, the articles ranging from the plague to the corona pandemic. The issue emerged from the online dossier ‘Epidemics’ that the Cluster of Excellence ‘Religion and Politics’ produced, and is published in Peter Lang’s literature for readers series.

Literary scholars explore in their individual articles the question of how literature depicts pandemics and epidemics, and the broader implications that literature draws from the issue. ‘The outbreak of the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic in 2020 and the life-changing experiences that it subjected people to around the world brought the classics of epidemic literature back into the news. At the same time, numerous reading projects emerged. And, of course, many new texts on the subject of “corona” or “epidemic” were also published’, says the editor of the special issue, literary scholar Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf. The special issue focuses on the role of reading and literature in times of epidemics. ‘On the one hand, literature seems to reflect our own experiences, and on the other it is full of historical knowledge about epidemics that can help readers to understand current debates better’, explains Wagner-Egelhaaf.

The first article by Pia Doering and Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf (Münster) looks at one of the most well-known texts in literature on epidemics, Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron (c. 1350), and explores the role of narration and reading reflected in the novel. In the article by Florian Kläger (Bayreuth), framings and paratexts play a role, these placing individual and collective experiences of crisis in relation to one another. Nikola Roßbach (Kassel) examines how texts in the early modern period dealt with the experience of the plague, while Isabelle Stauffer (Eichstätt) uses Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s story Die Virusepidemie in Südafrika (1989; The Virus Epidemic in South Africa) to shed light on the link between epidemic and racism.

Cristine Huck draws on Lola Randl’s 2020 novel Die Krone der Schöpfung (The Crowning of Creation) to reflect on literature as a tool for crisis management. Silke Horstkotte (Leipzig) presents two different novels that examine the long-term social effects of the coronavirus pandemic: Mareike Fallwickl’s realistic novel Die Wut, die bleibt (2021; The Rage That Remains) and Katharina Hacker’s fantastical and parabolic novel Die Gäste (2022; The Guests). The special issue ends with an article by Irene Husser (Tübingen) that deals with Elfriede Jelinek’s 2021 play Lärm. Blindes Sehen. Blinde sehen! (Noise. Blind Seeing. The Blind See!); Jelinek’s play lends voice(s) to the discourse of conspiracy theory that went viral (in the true sense of the word) during the Corona pandemic. (pie/fbu)