Thesis (MA) - Cyprus International University. Institute of Graduate Studies and Research English Language and Literature Department

Includes bibliography (sheets 67-73)

ABSTRACT
Literature on pandemics has long been a source of attraction and horror for readers. In
the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, pandemic literature has been brought to the
forefront of contemporary discourse in an attempt to understand how pandemics have
changed our lives through the eyes of the characters in these great literary pieces. This
thesis explores the themes and motifs of pandemics in literature through an analysis of
two classic works: The Plague by Albert Camus (1947) and The Masque of the Red
Death by Edgar Allan Poe (1842). Using Plato’s theory of mimesis, this thesis
examines how individuals and societies are affected by pandemics in the fictional and
non-fictional world through a close reading of the literary texts. In addition to
considering how these works reflect and comment on the historical and cultural
contexts in which they were written, the thesis will discuss how the world has dealt
with the COVID-19 pandemic in the 21st century. The results of this study, through a
closed-text qualitative content analysis, reveal that both The Plague and The Masque
of the Red Death explore themes of suffering, isolation, and the human capacity for
resilience and compassion in the face of crisis. However, there are notable differences
in the way these works approach the subject of pandemics. The Plague offers a more
optimistic vision of humanity’s ability to work together and overcome adversity, while
The Masque of the Red Death presents a darker and more nihilistic view of the lengths
to which people can go to survive a pandemic. Moreover, the study attempts to identify
the mimetic nature of diseases and comparisons between the characters in the classical
works and people in the non-fiction world and as such highlights that themes of
mimesis are common to pandemic literature especially in the literary works studied.
The study also demonstrates that the characters depicted in The Plague and The
Masque of the Red Death are an imitation of people in the non-fiction world as a closed
text study emphasises how the actions taken by the characters in their battles against
the pandemics in their world are similar to the way people battle pandemics in the real
world. Therefore, with regard to contemporary global health crises such as the
COVID-19 pandemic, this thesis illuminates the appeal and relevance of pandemics in
literature.
Keywords: COVID-19, Death, Mimesis, Pandemics, Plato, The Masque of the Red
Death, The Plague