Viral Pandemics and the Advent of Neo-Renaissance: A Lacanian Reading of Dan Brown’s Inferno

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter considers Dan Brown’s Inferno and the meaningful dialogue that can occur between the fictional work of Inferno and the scientific field of virology. The author argues that the mutual spillover from cutting-edge virology research into best-selling novel-writing is a compelling rebuttal of the idea that science and literature are to be seen as segregate compartments of culture. Reading the Inferno as a science novel may deepen our understanding of public responses to virology. The book addresses key issues in contemporary biomedicine and health policy including infectious diseases, endemic depression, and genetic engineering. This chapter reads Inferno from a psychoanalytic angle, building on Jacques Lacan’s “four discourses”: the discourse of the Master, the university discourse, the hysterical discourse, and the discourse of the analyst.KeywordsViral pandemicsDan BrownNeo-RenaissanceLacanian readingLacanTherapiesVirologyHealth policy