Episode Topic: Introduction, Literature and Plague

This week Professor Barry McCrea introduces the topic of the course by taking a long historical perspective on pandemics in society. Mass outbreaks of contagious illness have been common in human history, and over the millennia, thinkers and writers have left us their responses to the experience. In this introduction, taking examples from the traces left by prehistoric tribes, the role of plague in ancient Greek tragedy, and the work of Chaucer and Defoe, Barry looks at what aspects of life in a pandemic seem to be constant throughout the centuries, irrespective of technological and social changes.

Featured Speakers:

• Barry McCrea, Professor of English and the Donald R. Keough Family Professor of Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame
• Lisa Caulfield, the Director of the Notre Dame Global Center at Kylemore Abbey

Read this episode's recap over on the University of Notre Dame's open online learning community platform, ThinkND:  go.nd.edu/ec5b50.

This podcast is a part of the  London Book Club Series titled “Literature & Film in Lockdown".

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