{"product_id":"in-contagions-wake-black-writers-and-the-development-of-modern-outbreak-narratives-hardback-9781625349354","title":"In Contagion's Wake; Black Writers and the Development of Modern Outbreak Narratives (Hardback) 9781625349354","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eIn Contagion's Wake\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eBlack Writers and the Development of Modern Outbreak Narratives\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eKelly L. Bezio (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781625349354\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 5 June 2026\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e200 pages\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.399 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Bezio makes a meaningful contribution with this well-researched and up-to-date book by filling a gap in both literary and epidemiological studies. Her work repositions Black-authored texts as central rather than peripheral to the historical development of outbreak narratives. Its interdisciplinary approach ensures its impact in multiple academic fields, including literary studies, African American studies, and the medical humanities.” - Margaret Jay Jessee, author of \u003ci\u003eFemale Physicians in American Literature: Abortion in 19th-Century Literature and Culture\u003c\/i\u003e \t\u003cbr\u003e \t\u003cbr\u003e \t“Bezio offers an insightful and compelling way to argue for the relevance of early American texts in providing nuanced, epidemiologically attuned readings of outbreak stories in the present.” - Louise Penner, author of \u003ci\u003eVictorian Medicine and Social Reform: Florence Nightingale among the Novelists\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn examination of early American literature that highlights how racial divides exacerbated—and were exacerbated by—the spread of infection\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In April of 1721, the HMS \u003ci\u003eSeahorse \u003c\/i\u003earrived in Boston from the West Indies, causing a smallpox epidemic that would plague the city for the next year. Of its 12,000 inhabitants, nearly fifty percent were infected, and 900 people died. Like the coronavirus pandemic that began in 2020, the outbreak also brought to the surface deep divides in the social fabric of colonial New England and laid the groundwork for racialized political inequities that we continue to grapple with today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eIn Contagion’s Wake\u003c\/i\u003e examines a range of American outbreak narratives, both historical and fictional, written between the early 1700s and the early 1900s—from the rise of inoculation through the advent of germ theory. Author Kelly L. Bezio argues that during this period, literature about communicable disease was dominated by white authors, such as Cotton Mather and Edgar Allen Poe, who tended to privilege white suffering and survival while obscuring Black suffering and vulnerability. Black authors, however, such as Olaudah Equiano and Frances E.W. Harper, developed variations on plot structures, metaphors, and imagery that drew upon contagion to represent racial injustice and further the cause of Black liberation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The diverse texts Bezio analyzes vary extensively in genre and geographical location, and in the illnesses that feature in their pages. Significant disorders from the era, including yellow fever, smallpox, consumption, and cholera, make frequent appearances, as do less culturally dominant diseases such as St. Anthony’s Fire. \u003ci\u003eIn Contagion’s Wake\u003c\/i\u003e contends that representations of communicable disease should not be understood only as within their own historical moment; rather, they function more like a DNA code for our present time. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePreface and Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction: 1721 and Its Afterlives – Racialization in Modern Communicable Disease Discourse\u003cbr\u003e1. Early America and Modern Outbreak Narratives\u003cbr\u003e2. Communicable Disease and Narrating a Right to Life\u003cbr\u003e3. Outbreak, Victimhood Narratives, and Barriers to Imagining Racial Equality\u003cbr\u003e4. Black Adaptations of Outbreak Narratives\u003cbr\u003eCoda: Considering Epidemiology's Need for Literary History\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Massachusetts Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52633062310168,"sku":"9781625349354","price":60.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/in-contagions-wake-black-writers-and-the-development-of-modern-outbreak-narratives-hardback-9781625349354","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}