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Lesson Materials
May 26th: Literary Responses to Past Pandemics
This session will dive into how writers have processed past pandemics through their work, and discuss how metaphors are being used to describe the current COVID 19 pandemic as it is unfolding.
Video Lecture
Assigned Readings
May 27: Pandemics, Politics, and Pictures: Italian Art and the Black Death
In this session we’ll be looking at the response of the visual arts to pandemics, with particular emphasis on the roles of sculpture and painting in the aftermath of the Black Death in Italy in 1348. We’ll see the effects of apocalyptic fearmongering, social and political polarization and fake news on the production and reception of sculpture and painting in the later fourteenth century, providing a window for us into how a pandemic was experienced in one corner of the premodern world.
Video Lecture
Assigned Readings
- “The Epidemic in Italy" in The Great Pestilence (A.D. 1348-9), Now Commonly Known as the Black Death
- This is a reading from an old book, but it has three advantages over more recent alternatives:
- Gasquet quotes the most relevant writers from the time period of the Black Death In Italy in a compact bundle;
- The more recent translations of Boccaccio’s Decameron, the source that Gasquet quotes at greatest length, are not open access; and
- Gasquet’s translations of the Italian writers of the 1300s get the cadences and tone right, whereas more recent translations of the Decameron update the language but lose the feeling of the original.
- This is a reading from an old book, but it has three advantages over more recent alternatives:
Additional Resources
Want to learn more? Below are other articles, videos, infographics, etc. that will provide further information on this week's topics.
May 26th: Literary Responses to Past Pandemics
- Full BibliographySee the full source list for this lecture.
May 27: Pandemics, Politics, and Pictures: Italian Art and the Black Death
- Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death by Millard Meis
- Available on Internet Archive (will need to create a free account)
- Available for OWU students, faculty, and staff through library resources.
- Sienese Painting after the Black Death: artistic pluralism, politics and the new art market by Judith Steinhoff
Recommended Databases
Can't get enough? These databases have up-to-date scientific and academic research that can help you dig much deeper into any topic. Please note that OWU login credentials are required unless the resource is marked as open access. Please check your local public library for more resources.
May 26th: Literary Responses to Past Pandemics
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to the back issues of scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, some of which date back to the 1800s. Supports such disciplines as biological sciences, business and economics, education, history, language and literature, mathematics and statistics, music, political sciences and sociology.
*Please note that issues from the last 3 to 5 years for the majority of JSTOR's journals are not available. - MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Includes books, articles, and more published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. - HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
HathiTrust is a partnership of academic and research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.
May 27: Pandemics, Politics, and Pictures: Italian Art and the Black Death
- ARTstor This link opens in a new window
An interdisciplinary resource that provides access to thousands of high resolution images from many times and cultures in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences. Includes images of architecture, painting, photography, sculpture, decorative arts and design, archaeological and anthropological objects, and visual and material culture more generally. - JSTOR This link opens in a new windowFull-text access to the back issues of scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, some of which date back to the 1800s. Supports such disciplines as biological sciences, business and economics, education, history, language and literature, mathematics and statistics, music, political sciences and sociology.
*Please note that issues from the last 3 to 5 years for the majority of JSTOR's journals are not available.
- Wellcome CollectionWellcome Collection is a free museum and library that aims to challenge how we all think and feel about health.
Search Terms
Knowing what terms to use to search for resources on COVID19 is half the battle. For this week's lectures, we would recommend starting with the following keywords.
May 26th: Literary Responses to Past Pandemics
- Plague Literature
- Literary Arts
- Themes and figures
- Pandemic
- Sickness
May 27: Pandemics, Politics, and Pictures: Italian Art and the Black Death
- Andrea Orcagna
- Spanish Chapel
- Santa Croce, Florence
- Black Death
- Plague
- Visual Arts