Susan Sontag, battle language and the Hong Kong SARS outbreak of 2003
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
Economy and Society
Publication Date
2006
Volume
35
Issue
1
First Page
42
Last Page
64
Publisher
Routledge
Keywords
disease, language, SARS, Susan Sontag, war
Abstract
The widespread use of military language to describe modern epidemics is often attributed to the popularization of the germ theory of disease. Whatever its origins, critics regularly deplore martial imagery in the medical context finding it by turns dangerous, humiliating, and offensive. This article examines the most famous of these critiques, Susan Sontag's rebuttal of disease-as-war language, and finds it problematic in a number of respects. Mass emergency response to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in Hong Kong in 2003 offers a cross-cultural case study in the use of representations of war. Key to the argument is the proposition that disease-as-war language expresses something ‘real’ not illusory, vital not frivolous, about the community which employs it. The language is a vehicle for articulating social emotions of collective fear, patriotism, homage, and exculpation in conditions that presage collective death.
DOI
10.1080/03085140500465840
Print ISSN
03085147
E-ISSN
14695766
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2006 Taylor & Francis
Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Baehr, P. (2006). Susan Sontag, battle language and the Hong Kong SARS outbreak of 2003. Economy and Society, 35(1), 42-64. doi: 10.1080/03085140500465840