Witthaus, Jan-Henrik & Oster, Angela (2021) "Pandemic and literature"

The whole world is talking about corona. Literature has always written about pandemics. Boccaccio and Manzoni's descriptions of the plague in The Decameron and The Betrothed are part of Europe's collective memory and have been recommended as lockdown reading. In a collection of essays, these and other texts are re-read in the light of the current Covid-19 crisis. It turns out that these narrative texts are astonishingly topical, as thanks to Manzoni, Heine and co. we are currently seeing a ghostly return of long-known reaction patterns. However, it is also apparent that texts such as Camus' The Plague invite a deeper philosophical reflection that undermines the current European crisis discourse. As an indispensable time-lapse of crises, narrative literature shows us what is really essential for survival: creativity. And the current coronavirus debates in Italy and France - see further essays on this subject - are evidence of reflections of a social or ideological nature that hint at a horizon beyond the mere hypnosis of news and incidences.

https://www.mandelbaum.at/buecher/angela-oster-jan-henrik-witthaus/pandemie-und-literatur/