Les récits de la peste comme mode de connaissance, de mémoire et d'identification

The current Covid-19 pandemic affecting humanity raises many questions; it reminds us of the plague. What is the purpose of plague narratives in times of pandemic? Literature is a privileged source of information about this deadly epidemic, its onset, its symptoms, the measures taken to fight it, as well as its human, economic and social consequences. The plague is a disease that haunts our collective memory, especially today. It is through the eyes and testimonies of authors who have written about this subject that the reader grasps this anguish in the face of the unpredictability of the disease. This informational identification encourages the reader to go further in his reflections, to apprehend the symbolic dimensions of the plague, namely historical, religious and metaphysical. Literature offers narratives that shed light on the current crisis by drawing on past epidemics (real or fictional); the voices of the narrators reach the contemporary reader and echo the drama of the coronavirus.