PLAGUE AND COLLECTIVE CONCIOUSNESS FROM PAST TO PRESENT: THE ORIGINS OF THE “THE PLAGUE OF OUR AGE” DISCOURSE

Abstract

The study discusses the historical, political and literary effects of the plague from the ancient age to the present in order to examine the metaphorical connotations attributed to epidemics, especially plague societies have faced. It is accepted that the history of epidemics goes beyond the history of humanity. Communicable diseases such as malaria, syphilis, leprosy, typhoid fever, cholera and plague have resulted in disasters and have become the general name of destruction through the name of plague in the collective consciousness of humanity. The plague has been addressed from natural, political, religious and historical point of views in order to examine the metaphors of plague through the selected news. Since the ancient age, the plague has been regarded as the punishment and curse of the gods, and deeming others responsible for these epidemics has evolved into the wrath of God in the Middle Ages through the adoption of monotheistic beliefs and continued as being the scapegoat for the punishment. Rather than addressing plague as an ideological discourse biologically in the news of the twenty-first century we have addressed with metaphors imposed on it and the aim of studying it in terms of history of mentalities is to show the ethnic, religious, cultural, ethical and social change and metaphors created by transformation. The selected news have been discussed in the "Conclusion" part of the study after examining the historical dimensions of plague, taking medical, ethical, socio-cultural, economic, political factors into consideration in order to analyze the metaphors for the process of stigmatizing individuals and societies started in the Ancient Age with plague.