Outbreak Narratives and Medical Humanities: A Transdisciplinary Comparative Approach to the Literary Representation of Ebola in Preston’s The Hot Zone (1994) and Tag Elsir’s Ebola 76 (2012) | ||
| مجلة کلية الآداب جامعة الفيوم | ||
| Article 23, Volume 14, العدد 2 (اللغويات) - Serial Number 4, July 2022, Pages 658-706 PDF (724.1 K) | ||
| Document Type: المقالة الأصلية | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/jfafu.2022.139703.1761 | ||
| Author | ||
| فاتن أحمد رمضان* | ||
| قسم اللغة الإنجليزية ، کلية الآداب ، جامعة الفيوم ، محافظة الفيوم | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Humanity has been ravaged by a number of disastrous epidemics/pandemics that have exposed the cultural, social, political and hygienic fabric of societies. 'Outbreak Narrative' is a term coined by Priscilla Wald to describe a certain type of plot that manipulates the emergence of a latent viral disease that spreads world-wide and becomes a pandemic. The present research analyzes Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone and Amir Tag Elsir’s Ebola 76 through a transdisciplinary comparative approach. Choosing Preston’s The Hot Zone (1994) and Tag Elsir’s Ebola 76 (2012) in particular is due to the fact that both texts handle the same epidemic/pandemic, Ebola, so that exploring the two texts illuminates the contributing factors in the eruption and containment of the epidemic as well as how fiction is instrumental in penetrating the realities of epidemic/pandemic disasters. The transdisiplinary approach is chosen because of the complex nature of epidemics/pandemics. The theoretical framework utilizes concepts from literature, anthropology, epidemiology and Medical Humanities. Such theoretical framework probes the interconnectedness and multi-dimensionality of the epidemic/pandemic crisis. The Hot Zone and Ebola 76 reveal two disparate perspectives of Ebola that undermine cultural differences and the role of literature in penetrating the realities of viruses. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Outbreak Narrative; Medical Humanities; Transdisiplinary Approach; The Hot Zone; Ebola76 | ||
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