Montagu's Plague Metaphors

Seminar Informal Curriculum Event

Montagu observed smallpox inoculation in Constantinople; her reports spread the practice to a plague-swept England. The Letters also describe the Orient as a “land of plagues.” If we read inoculation as “managed infection,” how do the Turkish Embassy Letters complicate stereotypes about the Orient? What physical, cultural, and racial threats does “the East” pose for Europeans? Is it cure or curse, medicine or poison? Join us for an interactive discussion on Montagu’s Orient as both physical and metaphorical plague.

With Sunayani Bhattacharya