Human Extinction and the Pandemic Imaginary
Proposal review
Author(s)
Lynteris, Christos
Collection
Knowledge Unlatched (KU)Language
EnglishAbstract
This book develops an examination and critique of human extinction as a result of the ‘next pandemic’ and turns attention towards the role of pandemic catastrophe in the renegotiation of what it means to be human. Nested in debates in anthropology, philosophy, social theory and global health, the book argues that fear of and fascination with the ‘next pandemic’ stem not so much from an anticipation of a biological extinction of the human species, as from an expectation of the loss of mastery over human/non-humanl relations. Christos Lynteris employs the notion of the ‘pandemic imaginary’ in order to understand the way in which pandemic-borne human extinction refashions our understanding of humanity and its place in the world. The book challenges us to think how cosmological, aesthetic, ontological and political aspects of pandemic catastrophe are intertwined. The chapters examine the vital entanglement of epidemiological studies, popular culture, modes of scientific visualisation, and pandemic preparedness campaigns. This volume will be relevant for scholars and advanced students of anthropology as well as global health, and for many others interested in catastrophe, the ‘end of the world’ and the (post)apocalyptic.
Keywords
MERS CoV; Genetic Drift Event; Animal Kingdom; MERS; CIA Agent; National Academy; Elana Gomel; States Army Medical Research Institute; United States Army Medical Research; Human Extinction; SARS Pandemic; Acute Respiratory Viral Infection; Epidemiological Reasoning; Zombie Virus; Military Scientific Complex; Amoy Gardens; Nonhuman Animals; CDC Office; Wet Markets; Civet Cat; Plague Pandemic; AMRDOI
10.4324/9780429322051ISBN
9781000698169, 9781000698886, 9780429322051, 9781000698527, 9780367338145, 9780367776886, 9781000698169OCN
1110124897Publisher
Taylor & FrancisPublisher website
https://taylorandfrancis.com/Publication date and place
Oxford, 2019Grantor
Imprint
RoutledgeSeries
Routledge Studies in Anthropology,Classification
Social and cultural anthropology
Epidemiology and Medical statistics
Social and political philosophy
Human biology
Anthropology
Medical sociology
Social theory