Global Comparative Literature in a World of Pandemics

Ours is a world of pandemics. Intersecting with and frequently exacerbated by responses to the coronavirus pandemic have been numerous pandemics with much longer histories, including pandemics of other communicable diseases, as well as pandemics of non-communicable diseases, mental illness, addiction, systemic racism, social injustice, gender-based violence, and misinformation, all of which have been deeply intertwined with environmental degradation and climate disruption. In our era of multiple intensifying pandemics, not to mention often anemic humanities enrollments, it is crucial that comparative literature go more global: engaging more deeply with a broader array of texts, pathways, and processes than ever before with a focus on providing insights into global challenges and crises as well as possibilities for amelioration on a vast scale. This essay focuses on two examples: the connections between disease and stigma; and the connections between environmental crises and gender-based violence.