Although the events that the world is currently experiencing in light of the spread of the new Corona virus are in fact new to many, they are not so on the worlds of arts of all kinds, which is not only confined to cinema, as some believe, but it has extended to literature, as Many of them covered topics about epidemics and their periods of spread, and how they affected the societies in which they appeared, and so most of these works jumped to the top of the list of best sellers worldwide.
Among the most notable of these literary works is, in particular, the novel "The Plague", by Albert Camus, which was published in 1947, and its owner won the Nobel Prize for Literature. The "plague" revolves around the story of medical workers who work together in their work during the time of the plague in the Algerian city of Oran, and some have suggested that what is meant here is Paris, which is subject to a general quarantine, so no one is allowed to enter or leave it, and false news is spread to spread unrealistic reassurance, The novel departs from these events to ask questions about what is destiny and the destiny of man, and goes beyond the literal meaning of the plague, to symbolize it for everything that threatens human life and society is permissible, such as corruption and intellectual absenteeism in the name of religion, and capitalism permitting the value of man.
Yellow flag
Although the events of the novel “Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel García Márquez revolve around a love story that arises between a young man and a girl from adolescence until after the age of 70, it was linked to epidemics and quarantine, as it was drawn against the background of the emotional story, around which events revolve , A picture of the Caribbean, and the civil wars and difficult living conditions it was witnessing, and carefully monitor the conditions in this region of the world in the period from the late nineteenth century to the first decades of the twentieth century, in terms of economic, moral and demographic conditions, and what was caused by the spread of the cholera epidemic From the suffering of all, and almost destroyed the country, in The time the protagonist took as a means of being with his lover as long as possible, as he raised the yellow flag on the ship they were traveling on, a sign that she was carrying people with a cholera epidemic, so she was not allowed to dock in any port, other than refueling, so that the ship would continue to sail.
Al-Harafish
Arably, there may not be famous novels bearing in its name a reference to epidemics, but there are many works that included in its events this topic, transcending in its implications the concept of physical illness, to refer to many social, psychological and economic diseases, as in the epic “Al-Harafish”, by the writer The Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian, Naguib Mahfouz, who talked about the spread of "plague" in Egypt at that time, and the protagonist "Ashour Al-Naji" escaping his family from the epidemic, then returning after the end of the "plague" to the neighborhood, which was empty of its residents, in an attempt To establish a society based on justice, but over time, social epidemics come back as well You are.
Also, the "plague" or epidemic appeared between the events of the novel of the Dean of Arabic Literature, Dr. Taha Hussein, in "Doaa Al-Karawan", hence the well-known phrase from the film taken from the novel, in which "Al-Khal" answered "Amna", the heroine of the novel, and she asks him On the other hand, her sister, Hanadi, said: "Hanadi went to the epidemic." "Cholera" also appeared as an engine for the events of the "Sixth Day" novel, by French writer André Chedid, presented by director Youssef Chahine, in a movie with the same title, starring the late artist Dalida, and presented the role of a woman trying to hide her grandson who was afflicted by the epidemic. , So they don't take him to quarantine and die there.
The work monitors a close and grim picture of the suffering felt by the patient and his family during that period, and the spread of devastation, panic and panic among all. As for poetry, the poem “Cholera” stands out for the Iraqi poet Nazek Al-Malaika, which I wrote in 1947, to express the epidemic that spread death in Egypt at the time, and it was the beginning of “activation” poetry, and the Nazik angels stated that she “used this type of hair as an automatic response In it, I was inspired by the fall of the legs of the horses that pull the dead carriages from the victims of the epidemic, which spread in the Egyptian countryside.
Looking ahead
On the other hand, some writers created events in novels issued in previous periods, similar to what the world is currently witnessing, such as writer Stephen King, in his novel The Stand, which is considered one of his best works, and revolves around a flu-type virus called the "Blue Project". It causes the erasure of more than 99% of the planet, and only a few who live in a camp have survived, hence the war between good and evil, and turned this novel into a series. Likewise, the novel “Eyes of Darkness” by American writer Dean Contz, who was famous for writing science fiction novels, and the novel, which was published in 1981, dealt with the emergence of a virus named “Wuhan 400”
Novels jumped to the top of the world's best-selling book list.
Cholera appeared to drive the events of "The Sixth Day", by Andre Shedid.