This project examines José Saramago’s Blindness (1996) in the context of two other narratives focused on plagues and epidemics – Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) and Albert Camus’ The Plague (1947) – each written at different points in time during the development of clinical medicine as chronicled by Michel Foucault’s Birth of the Clinic. The paper draws heavily upon Foucault’s work on clinical medicine, as well as a number of different theories of medical history, government policy, and cultural attitudes towards health and illness. The goal of the project is twofold: first, to examine how the traditional elements in narratives of plague interact with and change in the presence of the relatively new phenomenon of clinical medicine, and second, to understand how Saramago’s Blindness reveals and critiques these changes via a term I dub post-clinical. This demonstrates the ability of literary plague narratives to both understand and critique the medical industry at large.
","abstract_html":"<p>This project examines José Saramago’s <em>Blindness</em> (1996) in the context of two other narratives focused on plagues and epidemics – Daniel Defoe’s <em>A Journal of the Plague Year</em> (1722) and Albert Camus’ <em>The Plague </em>(1947) – each written at different points in time during the development of clinical medicine as chronicled by Michel Foucault’s <em>Birth of the Clinic</em>. The paper draws heavily upon Foucault’s work on clinical medicine, as well as a number of different theories of medical history, government policy, and cultural attitudes towards health and illness. The goal of the project is twofold: first, to examine how the traditional elements in narratives of plague interact with and change in the presence of the relatively new phenomenon of clinical medicine, and second, to understand how Saramago’s <em>Blindness</em> reveals and critiques these changes via a term I dub <em>post-clinical</em>. This demonstrates the ability of literary plague narratives to both understand and critique the medical industry at large.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Ftacek, Matthew J"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Dr. Russell Prather"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2016,"date_issued":"2016-08-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2016-08-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:23:47Z","subjects":["Literature","Foucault","Medicine","Plague","Defoe","Camus","Clinical Medicine","Disease","History of Science, Technology, and Medicine","Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America","Literature in English, British Isles"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/101","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Dr. Russell Prather"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Ftacek, Matthew J"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2016-07-08T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Literature","Foucault","Medicine","Plague","Defoe","Camus","Clinical Medicine","Disease","History of Science, Technology, and Medicine","Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America","Literature in English, British Isles"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/101"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This project examines José Saramago’s Blindness (1996) in the context of two other narratives focused on plagues and epidemics – Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) and Albert Camus’ The Plague (1947) – each written at different points in time during the development of clinical medicine as chronicled by Michel Foucault’s Birth of the Clinic. The paper draws heavily upon Foucault’s work on clinical medicine, as well as a number of different theories of medical history, government policy, and cultural attitudes towards health and illness. The goal of the project is twofold: first, to examine how the traditional elements in narratives of plague interact with and change in the presence of the relatively new phenomenon of clinical medicine, and second, to understand how Saramago’s Blindness reveals and critiques these changes via a term I dub post-clinical. This demonstrates the ability of literary plague narratives to both understand and critique the medical industry at large.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Blind but Seeing: Post-clinical Medicine in Jose Saramago's Blindness"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Dr. Russell Prather"],"dc:creator":["Ftacek, Matthew J"],"dc:date.available":["2016-07-08T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["This project examines José Saramago’s Blindness (1996) in the context of two other narratives focused on plagues and epidemics – Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) and Albert Camus’ The Plague (1947) – each written at different points in time during the development of clinical medicine as chronicled by Michel Foucault’s Birth of the Clinic. The paper draws heavily upon Foucault’s work on clinical medicine, as well as a number of different theories of medical history, government policy, and cultural attitudes towards health and illness. The goal of the project is twofold: first, to examine how the traditional elements in narratives of plague interact with and change in the presence of the relatively new phenomenon of clinical medicine, and second, to understand how Saramago’s Blindness reveals and critiques these changes via a term I dub post-clinical. This demonstrates the ability of literary plague narratives to both understand and critique the medical industry at large.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/101"],"dc:subject":["Literature","Foucault","Medicine","Plague","Defoe","Camus","Clinical Medicine","Disease","History of Science, Technology, and Medicine","Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America","Literature in English, British Isles"],"dc:title":["Blind but Seeing: Post-clinical Medicine in Jose Saramago's Blindness"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:23:47Z"}