Imagining Contagion In Early Modern Europe

8vo, hardcover in dj, pp.305, The ideological underpinnings of early modern theories of contagion are dissected in this volume by an integrated team of literary scholars, cultural historians, historians of medicine and art historians. Even today, the spread of disease inspires moralizing discourse and the ostracism of groups thought responsible for contagion; the fear of illness and the desire to make sense of it are demonstrated in the current preoccupation with HIV, SARS, 'mad cow' disease, West Nile virus and avian flu, to cite but a few contemporary examples. Imagining Contagion in Early Modern Europe explores the nature of understanding when humanity is faced with threats to its well-being, if not to its very survival. About the Author: DONALD BEECHER Professor of English at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada DOMINIQUE BERTRAND Professor of French Literature, UniversitÈ Clermont II, France H…L»NE CAZES Lecturer in Renaissance French Literature, University of Victoria, Canada FR…D…RIC CHARBONNEAU William Dawson Scholar and Professor of Eighteenth-Century French Literature, McGill University, Canada MARIANNE CLOSSON Lecturer in Renaissance Literature, UniversitÈ d'Artois, France MICHEL FOURNIER Assistant Professor, Department of French, University of Ottawa, Canada NANCY M. FRELICK Associate Professor of French, University of British Columbia, Canada CLAUDE GAGNON Researcher, and founded of Horizons Philosophiques NICOLE GREENSPAN Researcher MITCHELL LEWIS HAMMOND Assistant Professor of History, University of Victoria, Canada DANIEL LINDMARK Professor of History and History Didactics, Ume University, Sweden ISABELLE PANTIN Professor of Renaissance Literature, UniversitÈ of Paris X-Nanterre, France GUY POIRIER Lecturer in French Renaissance Literature, Department of French Studies, University of Waterloo, Canada ROSE MARIE SAN JUAN Lecturer, Department of History of Art, University College London, UK DAVID SHUTTLETON Lecturer in Eighteenth-Century Literature, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK