Das Gespenst der Pandemie

At the interface of literary studies and medical history, Davina Höll shows how the traumatic epidemic experience of cholera, leading disease of the 19th century, found its way into contemporary literature. Exploring the epi- and pandemic state of emergency as an example, she demonstrates how closely scientific, political, social, and cultural discourses are interwoven and which role art and literature play in these processes of exchange, especially in times of crisis. The study, examining texts by Mark Twain, Heinrich Heine und George Eliot among others, is a plea for inter-and transdisciplinary thinking and research.