Contagion as process, metaphor, and timely interpretive tool, from antiquity to the twenty-first century.
Contagion as process, metaphor, and timely interpretive tool, from antiquity to the twenty-first century.
Cultures of Contagion recounts episodes in the history of contagions, from ancient times to the twenty-first century. It considers contagion not only in the medical sense but also as a process, a metaphor, and an interpretive model--as a term that describes not only the transmission of a virus but also the propagation of a phenomenon. The authors describe a wide range of social, cultural, political, and anthropological instances through the prism of contagion--from anti-Semitism to migration, from the nuclear contamination of the planet to the violence of Mao's Red Guard.
The book proceeds glossary style, with a series of short texts arranged alphabetically, beginning with an entry on aluminum and ""environmental contagion"" and ending with a discussion of writing and ""textual resemblance"" caused by influence, imitation, borrowing, and plagiarism. The authors--leading scholars associated with the Center for Historical Research (CRH, Centre de recherches historiques), Paris--consider such topics as the connection between contagion and suggestion, ""waltzmania"" in post-Terror Paris, the effect of reading on sensitive imaginations, and the contagiousness of yawning. They take two distinct approaches- either examining contagion and what it signified contemporaneously, or deploying contagion as an interpretive tool. Both perspectives illuminate unexpected connections, unnoticed configurations, and invisible interactions.
By:
Beatrice Delaurenti,
Thomas Le Roux
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9780262045919
ISBN 10: 0262045915
Pages: 368
Publication Date: 02 November 2021
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
INTRODUCTION CONTAGION: ITS HISTORY AND SOME HISTORIOGRAPHICAL EXAMPLES FROM ANTIQUITY TO TODAY 1 ALUMINUM THE HYPOTHESIS OF AN ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE EPIDEMIC? 19 ANALOGY MINIATURIZATION, MULTIPLICATION, AND FIGURATION IN MEDIEVAL CHRISTENDOM 25 ANTI-SEMITISM ANTI-SEMITISM AS A DISEASE: THE HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF A METAPHOR 33 ARISTOCRACY TAINTED BLOOD AND ARISTOCRATIC VALUES IN EARLY MODERN SPAIN 39 BELIEF LIBERTINISM AND ATHEISM (SIXTEENTH TO EIGHTEENTH CENTURY) 45 CALENDAR CIRCULATION AND MISUSE OF A MEDIEVAL ICONOGRAPHICAL MODEL 51 CARTOGRAPHY JOHN SNOW AND THE TOPOGRAPHY OF CHOLERA 57 CLOTHING MEDIEVAL SUMPTUARY LAWS AS MEASURES OF SOCIAL CONTAINMENT? 65 COLONIZATION SOCIAL CONTAGION AS A CIVILIZING TOOL 71 CONSUMPTION ADDICTION TO GEOPHAGY DURING THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE SPANISH EMPIRE 77 CONTROVERSY PROPAGATION OF THE QUARREL BETWEEN RABBIS JACOB EMDEN AND JONATHAN EYBESCHUTZ 83 CROWD GUSTAVE LE BON, SIGMUND FREUD, GABRIEL TARDE BETWEEN SUGGESTION AND CONTAGION 89 DANCE WALTZMANIA IN THE PARIS PLEASURE GARDENS 95 EPIDEMIC BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS IN FRANCE AND THE UNITED KINGDOM (NINETEENTH CENTURY): FROM THE MIASMA TO THE MICROBE 103 EX-VOTO VOTIVE AND POLITICAL ACCUMULATIONS IN THE PUBLIC SPACE 107 HERESY FIGHTING THE CRYPTO-PROTESTANT “INFESTATION” UNDER THE HABSBURG MONARCHY 115 ICONOGRAPHY DYNAMICS OF INNOVATION AT WORK IN THE REPRESENTATION OF THE HELLMOUTH 121 INNOVATION ORGAN BUILDING AND DIPLOMATIC EXCHANGES IN THE RENAISSANCE 129 JUDEITY IDENTITY AND OTHERNESS: JEWS IN FRANCE CIRCA 1900 135 LANGUAGES HYBRID LANGUAGES OR “IMPURE” LANGUAGES? FROM HISPERIC LATIN TO ARABO-LATIN (SIXTH TO FIFTEENTH CENTURY) 141 LITERATURE THE MISDEEDS OF READING UPON SENSITIVE IMAGINATIONS 147 LUXURY “HOLDING INDIA IN THEIR HANDS”: INFLUX OF WEALTH INTO REPUBLICAN AND IMPERIAL ROME 153 MANUSCRIPTS EXEMPLA AND THE FREEDOM OF COPYISTS AT THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES 159 MICROBES UNDERSTANDINGS OF DISEASE TRANSMISSION IN THE WESTERN WORLD (FIFTEENTH TO TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY) 165 MIGRATION MIGRATION NETWORKS: MAPPING AND THEORIZING MOBILITY 171 MYTH THE NEANDERTHAL JEW: A STRUCTURE THAT GIVES MEANING TO THE SUBJUGATION OF THE OTHER 177 NAMING LINEAGES OF CHOICE AMONG THE ARTISTS OF THE RENAISSANCE 183 NUCLEAR VISUALIZING THE NUCLEAR CONTAMINATION OF THE PLANET DURING THE COLD WAR 189 PLAGUE PROCESSIONS AT BEAUNE AMID THE WARS OF RELIGION: A WORD AGAINST WHICH EVIL? 195 POLLUTION THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY: A BARRICADE AGAINST INFECTION (1770–1830) 201 PRISON “PRISON IS A SCHOOL OF CRIME”: PROSELYTISM IN THE JAILS OF THE ANCIEN RÉGIME 207 PROGRESS THE BATTLE OF WHEAT: AN IDEOLOGICAL TOOL FOR FASCIST ITALY 213 PROPHYLAXIS SINGING TO THE VIRGIN FOR PROTECTION FROM THE PLAGUE 219 RACE THE DISCOURSE ON “BLOOD CONTAMINATION” IN COLONIAL BRITAIN 225 RED GUARDS AUGUST 1966: SOCIAL AND IDEOLOGICAL VIOLENCE IN MAO’S CHINA 231 RELICS CONTAGIOUS VIRTUE OF SACRED BODIES 237 REVOLUTION THE “FRENCH CONTAGION” AND “JEWISH JACOBINERY” IN THE WRITINGS OF ITALIAN ANTIREVOLUTIONARIES 243 RITUAL EMERGENCE OF MEANING IN MEDIEVAL LITURGY 249 SANCTITY ROSELINE DE VILLENEUVE OR THE “INVISIBLE ACTION OF THE SPIRIT” 259 SMALLPOX INOCULATION OR QUARANTINE? A SCIENTIFIC DEBATE IN EUROPE DURING THE ENLIGHTENMENT 265 SOLITUDE THE RIGHT TO LIVE ALONE: A DIFFICULT PATH TO ACCEPTANCE IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETIES 271 SPIRITUALITY CONTAMINATED AND CONTAGIOUS PASSIONS: FROM DEVOUT ECSTASY TO DEMONIC POSSESSION 277 SUICIDE MORAL CONTAGION VERSUS SOCIAL EPIDEMIC IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ÉMILE DURKHEIM’S SOCIOLOGY 283 SWAMPS DRYING FEVER IN MODERN EUROPE 289 THEATER FROM POISON TO PATRIOTIC ELECTRICITY: EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CONCEPTIONS OF THE SPECTACLE 295 TRADITION ANCIENT WRITINGS AND POLITICAL LEGITIMATION IN CHINA AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 301 TRANSNATIONALISM MIGRATION FEVER AND THE STUDY OF MOBILITY 307 VOGUE THE LAMBETH WALK AND THE “FOLKLORIZATION” OF COCKNEY CULTURE IN 1930s GREAT BRITAIN 313 WRITING TEXTUAL RESEMBLANCE AS A HISTORICAL OBJECT 321 YAWNING WHY IS YAWNING CATCHING? FOURTEENTHCENTURY MEDICINE AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY 327 AFTERWORD CONTAGIONS, IDEOLOGIES, ECONOMIES: THOUGHTS IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 333 Acknowledgments 339 Contributors 341
Beatrice Delaurenti is Associate Professor in History at the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS, cole des Hautes tudes en Sciences Sociales), Paris. Thomas Le Roux is Associate Professor of Research in History at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and coauthor (with Fran ois Jarrige) of The Contamination of the Earth (MIT Press). Delaurenti and Le Roux are Directors of the Center for Historical Research (CRH, Centre de recherches historiques) of the EHESS.
