Date/Time
Date(s) - 23 Oct 2012
7:30 PM - 8:45 PM
Location
Faculty and Staff Lounge, Hunter College
Category(ies) No Categories
Miraculous Plagues: An Epidemiology of Early New England Narrative (Oxford University Press)
Cristobal Silva (Columbia University)
October 23 at 7:30pm
Miraculous Plagues re-imagines New England’s literary history by tracing seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century epidemics alongside events including early migration, the Antinomian controversy, the evolution of the halfway covenant and jeremiad, and Boston’s 1721 inoculation controversy. Moving beyond familiar histories of New World epidemics (often referred to as the “virgin soil” model), Cristobal Silva identifies epidemiology as a generic category with specialized forms and conventions. Epidemiology functions as both subject and method in Silva’s argument, as he details narratives that represent modes of infection, population distribution, and immunity. He considers how regional and generational patterns of illness affected the perception of communal identity, and he analyzes the translation of epidemic events into narrative and generic terms, providing scholars a new way to conceptualize the relationship between immunology and ideology.
Salon Talks are an opportunity for local American Studies scholars to share their published work with an intimate audience. They tend to be small, lively, and informative; light refreshments are served. This semester all Salon Talks will be held in the Faculty and Staff Lounge, on the 8th floor of the West Building, Hunter College (Lexington Avenue and 68th Street).
For directions, more information, or to rsvp, contact Sarah Chinn at [email protected]