Exclusionary acts: Gender, race, and epidemiology in literary spaces

Abstract

Clearly, there is something about the phenomenon of an epidemic that makes it not merely an isolated scientific occurrence, but one with social and discursive ramifications. The tendency of both popular and authoritative treatments of disease to collapse the language and considerations of science, politics, and ideology demonstrates how disease and its discourse have permeated language and culture. The language of epidemics and quarantine are central to cultural and literary definitions of exclusion and identity, so integral, in fact, that they have failed to be examined by both consumer and critical audiences.