And Rarely Just Illness
How to Read Literature like
a Professor
Chapter 24
Dominique Colligan

WHAT MAKES A PRIME LITERAY DISEASE?

• The prime literary diseases are picturesque, mysterious in origin, and metaphorical possibilities.
• Consumption was a disease that existed in the victorian age, consumption is referenced in PIcturesque and Mysterious in Origin.
• The diseases small pox and tuberculosis is referenced with metaphorical possibilities.
• Tuberculosis was a wasting disease, it made people grow thinner. TB joined cancer in dominating the literary imagination.
• Author Henrik Ibsen uses TB as his literary disease.

"Often though, the most effective illness is the one the writer makes up. Fever- the non-roman sort- worked like a charm in times past."

PLAGUES

• A good example of a metaphorical possibility is a plague
• A popular plague malaria translates to "bad air"
• Malaria got that name, because people thought that it came from harmful vapors in hot moist air.

"A good example would be a plague. As an instance of individual suffering, bubonic plague is no bonus, but in terms of widespread, societal devastation, it's a champion."

DISEASES OF TIME PERIODS

• The victorians and romantics had consumption.
• The twentieth century has AIDS.
• In terms of literacy AIDS is metaphorical and symbolic.
• Aids lies dormant for so long, then makes it appearance offers strong symbolic possibilities.

"The way it has visited itself disproportionately on young people, hit the gay community so hard, devastated so many people in the developing world, been a scourge in artistic circles- the tragedy and despair, but also the courage and resilience and compassion (or their lack) have provided metaphor, theme, and symbol as well as plot and situation for our writers."

This chapter can apply to a thousand splendid suns because of when NaNa experienced the "jinn" which were just seizures. But it also shows an illness
"Nana looked so mad that Mariam feared the jinn would enter her mother's body again" (4).

This chapter also applies to everyday life, because thousands of people are affected by AIDS every day. And there still hasn't been a way to cure the deadly disease, but there's many ways to prevent it.

WORKS CITED

• Foster, Thomas C. "Chapter 24." How to Read Literature like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading between the Lines. New York: Quill, 2003. N. pag. Print.
• Hosseini, Khaled. "Part 1." A Thousand Splendid Suns. New York: Riverhead, 2007. 4. Print.