Slide 1RecapThe Great Plague of London,1665Slide 4Bills of MortalityDaniel Defoe (1660-1731)A Journal of the Plague Year (1722)Student-Generated Discussion TopicsDiscussion QuestionsClose Reading PassagesClose Reading StepsFor ThursdayEARLY MODERN QUARANTINEENGL 123.003, Fall 2016Tues, 8/30/16Recap•Pernick’s “Contagion and Culture” •Definition of contagion is contingent and contested•Boccaccio’s The Decameron•Frame story•Variety of responses to plague•Preface establishes importance of compassionThe Great Plague of London,1665•Last plague epidemic in London; worst since Black Death•At peak, 8,000 people died per week•Wealthy fled to the country-side; poorest remained in city•The Great Fire of 1666 wiped out the last of the plague•Organized response and accounting in the form of Plague Orders & Bills of Mortality•Sick were quarantined in homes to prevent spread“That if any House be Infected, the sick person or persons be forthwith removed to the said pest-house, sheds, or huts, for the preservation of the rest of the Family: And that such house (though none be dead therein) be shut up for forty days, and have a Red Cross, and Lord have mercy upon us, in Capital Letters affixed on the door, and Warders appointed, as well to find them necessaries, as to keep them from conversing with the sound.”Bills of MortalityDaniel Defoe (1660-1731)•British poet, journalist, and novelist known for Robinson Crusoe (1719)•Born in London to dissenters•Merchant by trade•Published first pamphlet in 1683•Transitioned to fiction later in life•Credited with founding the modern English novelNovel = long, fictitious prose narrative C18 novels were new, realistic, and developed individual characters.C18 print culture derived from growing middle class, increased literacy, printing innovations, growing class of professional writers, and circulating libraries.A Journal of the Plague Year (1722)•Narrator, H. F., remains in London during the plague•Written as a record of his observations during that time:•shutting up of houses, •collecting and burring the dead, •conditions of the poor, •quacks, etc.•Commentary paired with exemplary story•Considered to be Historical fiction or historical novel•Emphasis on verisimilitude•Regularly returns to critique of the lack of preparation on the part of the city and individualsStudent-Generated Discussion Topics•Questions?•Passages of interest•Talking pointsDiscussion Questions•Why does Defoe pay so much attention to routes of communication?•What is the purpose of revisiting a real plague over 50 years later?•Why not create an entirely fictional plague?•What is the effect of the blend of history and fiction?•What purpose do the reproduced documents play?•How would you characterize the genre? Is it a novel? Something else?Close Reading Passages•“We had no such thing as printed News Papers in those Days […] and it was printed in the weekly Bill of Mortality in the usual manner, thus, Plague 2. Parishes infected 1” (3-4).•“I saw both these Stars; and I must confess [...] by two People dying at St. Giles’s, as above” (21-22).•“I shall not be supposed to lesson the Authority or Capacity of the Physicians […] as they knew they had deserved” (36).•“It is true that the locking up of the Doors of Peoples Houses [...] of which by it self” (48).•“Nothing, but the immediate Finger of God [...] but that would be to lessen the Value of it” (234-235).Close Reading Steps•First, explain what is happening in the passage (the what).•Second, consider how the passage is written (the how). •Third, attempt to explain why the passage was written this way (the why).For Thursday•Read Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” and Hawthorne’s “Lady Eleanore’s Mantle”•Keep in mind:•Social class•Explanations for contagion (remember, this is pre-germ theory)•Possible metaphorical meanings of