Camus’ Oran and Saramago’s Blind City: A Representation of the World during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This article studies the city spaces in Albert Camus’ “The Plague” and Jose Saramago’s “Blindness.” In light of COVID-19, the article reads these two literary texts in terms of their spatial settings that represent fictional microcosms of the real world engulfed in the COVID-19 pandemic. It also demonstrates how pandemics expose and exacerbate the flaws that are inherent in the social, ideological, and infrastructural dimensions of city spaces. The pandemics reshape Camus’ and Saramago’s cities, intensify human antagonism, and expose the fragility of the urban structure. We rely on George Simmel’s viewpoints of the city as a space of constant conflicts and antagonism, so one can understand the struggles that take place on the spaces of Camus’ Oran and Saramago’s blind city. The article also employs Julian Wolfreys’ concept of the urban uncanny to interpret the mystery and fear that accompany the emergence of diseases in cities. Finally, our experience with the COVID-19 pandemic provides new insights into Albert Camus’ “The Plague” and Jose Saramago’s “Blindness” as they become a fictional reflection of our own experience.