Cóilín Parsons Reflects on Coronavirus While Teaching Camus’s ‘The Plague’

Posted in Announcement  |  Tagged Camus, Cóilín Parsons, coronavirus, plague

As we grapple with the uncertainties surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, our own Professor Cóilín Parsons reflects on it through the lens of reading Albert Camus’s The Plague with his class this semester. Set during the throws of World War II in French-controlled Algeria, this novel addresses topics like quarantine and adjustment to a new normal—similar to our own current global situation.

In particular, one line in this essay, published by the  Los Angeles Review of Books, sticks out as an important takeaway:

“We cannot presume to go on as if the world has not shifted again on its axis, but we also cannot simply conjure a new, improved version of our world without taking stock.”

Cóilín Parsons

Read the full essay.