A syphilis-giving God ? : on the interpretation of the Philistine’s scourge

Article Article scientifique Article A syphilis-giving God ? : on the interpretation of the Philistine’s scourge eng 2024-02-24 author Bächtold Matteo Institut d’Histoire de la Réformation, University of Geneva , Geneva , Switzerland 880289 20220196 10.1515/culture-2022-0196 2451-3474 https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/culture-2022-0196/html <p>To understand a text, or any other form of art work, as referring to a disease is not always obvious. This uncertainty, although confined to rare cases, nevertheless allows us to explore the limits and blind spots of certain frameworks proposed to think about the relationship between art and disease, notably Susan Sontag’s book Ilness as metaphor . In this article, I take a closer look at the calamity described in chapters 5 and 6 of the first book of Samuel and its various exegeses in the Western World. This calamity (still considered by many to be a bubonic plague), was not associated with the pandemic imaginary by ancient commentators, artists, and doctors, and it is only in modern times that medical diagnoses of the text change in this sense. I propose to see that these seemingly innocuous changes in diagnostic interpretations actually reflect deep changes in the relation between illness and divine agency. After a brief critical review of Susan Sontag’s writings on interpretation and their relationship to Ilness as Metaphor, I will proceed to trace the complex interpretation history of this calamity, before drawing observations about the place of interpretation in literary criticism and in the medical sciences.</p> Dewey 200 Dewey 270.6 12 Institut d'histoire de la réformation 0D2 6 Faculté autonome de théologie protestante 6 false Open Cultural Studies 8 1 715d120a-69b8-4375-b462-e231f410d87c Article (Published version) Public Article-scientifique-from-crossref.pdf 1938666 application/pdf CC BY-4.0 737867d4b2a753cb38d0c21f347acd02dbc59eeb5dad6f11d650ec1f7a89bc79 openAccess Centres et instituts / Institut d'histoire de la réformation Faculté autonome de théologie protestante

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A syphilis-giving God ? : on the interpretation of the Philistine’s scourge	Open Cultural Studies			2024	125	1,187

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Bächtold, Matteo

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