The Cultural History of a Recurrent Epidemic - The Story of the Plague

The paper’s aim is to outline the profile of the plague and the shift from a terrible disease of the past to a prolific artistic metaphor from a double perspective: medical and cultural. The demonstration will explore the metamorphosis of a recurrent epidemic: the plague. The study starts with a short medical and cultural history of the disease, which is followed by the examination of the presumed alternative causes of the plague in the course of time (in relation to the natural elements) and of the complex imaginary it gave birth to, and concluded with the discussion of plague as a metaphor in different fields and the legacy it has left.

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