Classical Rhetorical Theory and Practice – ANCIENT RHETORIC and MODERN THEORIES OF THE PANDEMIC

In this course we will consider ancient rhetorical discussions of plagues and epidemics (in the Iliad, tragedy, the Hippocratic corpus, Thucydides, Lucretius, and late-antique historiography) in relation to theoretical interventions on COVID-19 by J. Butler, R. Esposito, S. Hartman, J,-L. Nancy, A. Toscano, S. Weber, and S. Zizek, among others.