Plague Experiences in Early Modern London and their Contemporary (COVID19) Resonances Today

Health care workers wearing protective face coverings. A period of scientific uncertainty regarding the mechanisms of disease transmission and resulting epidemiological anxieties among the populace. Religiously motivated resistance to public health directives. Fears of economic recession and the collapse of social safety nets. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, a widespread recognition that the ongoing epidemic/pandemic disproportionately affects certain segments of the population–whether based on age, class, race or geography–more than others.

These statements, of course, reflect our contemporary existence in the midst of the ongoing COVID19 pandemic. However, each of these statements is equally applicable to the plague-time experiences of Londoners during the early decades of the 17th century. At a moment when individual and collective responses to pandemic policies in the U.S. have become politicized and therefore highly partisan, how might a consideration of the individual and collective experiences of early modern Londoners help us think through the collective challenges we face today? This presentation briefly surveys a cross-section of plague-time literature from early modern London, including polemical prose tracts and satiric plays, in order to suggest provisional answers to this all-important question.

Speakers Expertise:

Dr. Christopher D. Foley is an assistant professor of English at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he teaches classes in Shakespeare, early British literature, drama, the history of the English language and the environmental humanities on both the Hattiesburg and Gulf Park campuses. His research areas of expertise are early modern (Renaissance) literature and the environmental humanities. He has published several essays on the connections between early modern literature and the public health concerns of London at the turn of the 17th century, including the plague. He is currently working on a book project entitled, "Environmental Theatre in Shakespeare's London," which concludes with an epilogue addressing epidemiological uncertainties, commercial theatre closures during the COVID19 outbreak and the continued need for communal support in the midst of quarantine and self-isolation.