It argues that while the human “hardware” has changed enormously between the medieval past and the present (urbanization, technology, mass warfare, and advances in medical science), the human “software” (emotional and psychological reactions to the shock of pandemic) has remained remarkably similar across time.

1. Introduction: Language and Violence from the Black Death to COVID-19.- 2. The Pardoner, the Prioress, and the Pandemic: Jews and Other Scapegoats in Fourteenth-Century European Culture.- 3. Death and the Maiden: Mourning and Melancholy in Pearl and the Late Medieval European Elegy.- 4. The Plague’s The Thing: Pandemic and Religious Politics in Shakespeare’s Drama.- 5. The Brown Plague and the White Sickness: Fascism and the Crisis of Democracy in Twentieth-Century Plague Fiction and Film.- 6. Conclusion.

Writing Plague: Language and Violence from the Black Death to COVID-19 brings a holistic and comparative perspective to “plague writing” from the later Middle Ages to the twenty-first century. It argues that while the human “hardware” has changed enormously between the medieval past and the present the human “software” has remained remarkably similar across time. Through close readings of works by medieval writers like Guillaume de Machaut, Giovanni Boccaccio, and Geoffrey Chaucer in the fourteenth century, select plays by Shakespeare, and modern “plague” fiction and film, Alfred Thomas convincingly demonstrates psychological continuities between the Black Death and COVID-19. Thomas highlights the danger of scapegoating vulnerable minority groups such as Asian Americans and Jews in today’s America. This wide-ranging study will thus be of interest not only to medievalists but also to students of modernity as well as the general reader.

"WRITING PLAGUE: LANGUAGE AND VIOLENCE FROM THE BLACK DEATH TO COVID-19 is comparative literary study at its very best; it covers seven centuries of European literary history and multiple literary genres with an elegantly realized argument, a capacious conceptual framework, and incisive close readings of medieval, early modern, and modern works. Thoughtful and thought-provoking, it marshals literary analysis, political history, and psychological insight as it explores responses to plague, especially the scapegoating of minorities and melancholic self-blaming. Prof. Thomas details the complexities of such violence and the mutations of violence, directly and indirectly manifested. This unfailingly humane book deserves a broad readership for the issues it raises and for the clear-headedness with which it treats them." —William Mills Todd III, Research Professor, Harry Tuchman Levin Professor of Literature, Emeritus, Harvard University"​Writing Plague brings the medieval world to life for a modern audience. Through careful dissection of words and images, Thomas explores how the Black Death impacted the social imagination of 14th century Europe. The fear of death led to social schisms and the scapegoating of minorities, notably the Jews; a pattern with many parallels in social and political responses to the COVID-19 pandemic."—Peter Rutland, Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thought, Government Department, Wesleyan University“A timely and powerful study that tracks literary representations of plague from the 14th century through the Early Modern period and up to our present moment. This book shows us how artistic treatment of the Black Death could be used to offer comfort and consolation, but also, how it could be weaponized to promote fear and persecution against minority communities. More pertinent than ever in the time of COVID.”—Dorsey Armstrong, Department Head and Professor of English, Executive Editor, Arthuriana, English Department, Purdue University

Argues that reactions to pandemics between the middle ages and the present have largely remained the same Analyzes the current resurgence of anti-semitism while also examining a history of violence towards minorities Traces a transhistorical and transcultural pandemic discourse