The World’s Tsunami: Covid-19 and the Relief Aid of Literature | ||
| Cairo Studies in English | ||
| Article 6, Volume 2021, Issue 2, December 2021, Pages 72-100 PDF (359.82 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/cse.2022.71439.1104 | ||
| Author | ||
| Heba Makram Sharobeem* | ||
| English Department, Faculty of Education, Alexandria University | ||
| Abstract | ||
| This paper discusses the shocking and deadly effect caused by the eruption of Covid- 19, which can be regarded as a tsunami- like pandemic. It focuses on the therapeutic effect of literature and its role as a crisis-relief -aid through examining four texts of different genres; two of which chronicle the occurrence of an actual pestilence, Cholera, in Egypt, and the other two imagine the outbreak of a deadly pandemic. All texts appeal to our Covid -19 situation and prove the lasting power and impact of literature, regardless of time and place. The first two texts, written in Arabic, are The Days (originally published in 1929), the autobiography of the Egyptian writer Taha Hussein (1889-1973), and the second is “Cholera” (1947), a poem by the Iraqi poet Nazek al- Malaika (1923-2003). The third is TheScarlet Plague (1912), a post-apocalyptic novel written by Jack London (1876-1916). The last one is About Birds We Talk (2010), a novel by Ahmed Khaled Tawfiq (1962-2018). | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Covid- 19; pandemic; fear; The Days; Taha Hussein; “Cholera; ” Nazek al- Malaika; The Scarlet Plague; Jack London; post-apocalyptic literature About Birds We Talk; Ahmed Khaled Tawfiq | ||
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