InfoCoBuild

HIST 234: Epidemics in Western Society Since 1600

Lecture 05 - Plague (III): Illustrations and Conclusions. One of the major cultural consequences of the second plague pandemic was its effect on attitudes towards death and the "art of dying." As a result both of its extreme virulence and the strictness of the measures imposed to combat it, plague significantly disrupted traditional customs of dealing with death. This disruption made itself felt not only in religious belief and burial practices but also in art, architecture and literature. European culture was profoundly shaped by the experience of the plague, as witnessed by the advent of symbols such as "vanitas" and the danse macabre in iconography, as well as the visual representations associated with the new cults of plague saints. The successful containment of the plague might be seen to have exercised a similarly powerful effect in shaping the philosophical project of the Enlightenment, in that the measures taken to ward off death gave material substance to theoretical claims of progress. (from oyc.yale.edu)

Lecture 05 - Plague (III): Illustrations and Conclusions

Time Lecture Chapters
[00:00:00] 1. Effects of Bubonic Plague on European Culture
[00:02:51] 2. "Ars Moriendi": The Art of Dying
[00:07:54] 3. "Mors Repentina": Death Unleashed
[00:19:53] 4. "Vanitas" and "Danse Macabre": Life as Transitory and Fragile, and Death as a Merry Dance
[00:29:14] 5. Cults of Plague Saints
[00:37:24] 6. Plague as a Factor in European Intellectual History

References
Lecture 5 - Plague (III): Illustrations and Conclusions
Instructor: Professor Frank Snowden. Transcript [html]. Audio [mp3]. Download Video [mov].

Go to the Course Home or watch other lectures:

Lecture 01 - Introduction to the Course
Lecture 02 - Classical Views of Disease: Hippocrates, Galen, and Humoralism
Lecture 03 - Plague (I): Pestilence as Disease
Lecture 04 - Plague (II): Responses and Measures
Lecture 05 - Plague (III): Illustrations and Conclusions
Lecture 06 - Smallpox (I): "The Speckled Monster"
Lecture 07 - Smallpox (II): Jenner, Vaccination, and Eradication
Lecture 08 - Nineteenth-Century Medicine: The Paris School of Medicine
Lecture 09 - Asiatic Cholera (I): Personal Reflections
Lecture 10 - Asiatic Cholera (II): Five Pandemics
Lecture 11 - The Sanitary Movement and the "Filth Theory of Disease"
Lecture 12 - Syphilis: From the "Great Pox" to the Modern Version
Lecture 13 - Contagionism versus Anticontagionism
Lecture 14 - The Germ Theory of Disease
Lecture 15 - Tropical Medicine as a Discipline
Lecture 16 - Malaria (I): The Case of Italy
Lecture 17 - Malaria (II): The Global Challenge
Lecture 18 - Tuberculosis (I): The Era of Consumption
Lecture 19 - Tuberculosis (II): After Robert Koch
Lecture 20 - Pandemic Influenza
Lecture 21 - The Tuskegee Experiment
Lecture 22 - AIDS (I)
Lecture 23 - AIDS (II)
Lecture 24 - Poliomyelitis: Problems of Eradication
Lecture 25 - SARS, Avian Inluenza, and Swine Flu: Lessons and Prospects
Lecture 26 - Final Q & A