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"Aristotle’s Logic of Syllogism and Mimesis as Applied to Speculating and Imitating Pandemics in St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven (2014) and Amir Tag Elsir’s Ebola 76 (2012)"

Article

Last updated: 25 Dec 2024

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Abstract

This paper examines the applicability of the Aristotelian logic of syllogism and mimesis to speculating and imitating epidemics through two pandemic narratives. Two literary texts relating to two different cultures are analyzed: Ebola 76 (2012) by the Eastern Sudanese Amir Tag Elsir, which is considered a prescient of the second wave of Ebola in 2014 and Station Eleven (2014) by the Western Canadian St. John Mandel, which is also considered a prescient of COVID-19 in 2020. These viruses are logically speculated and imitated in fiction because of the certain mutation of previous similar viruses. Following Aristotle's logic, these two novelists apply the deduction method of reasoning to speculate pandemics.  Aristotle's logic claims that any certain conclusion should start first with two premises. In these two texts, the first premise is that there is a virus. The second premise is that this virus mutates. Then, the certain conclusion is a newly mutated virus. Thus, despite cultural differences, both novelists can imitate the past and the present just to speculate future pandemics in real life.

DOI

10.21608/buijhs.2023.94532.1087

Keywords

Aristotle, syllogism, mimesis, speculation, Pandemic Fiction

Authors

First Name

Alyaa

Last Name

M Saad Mustafa

MiddleName

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Affiliation

English department, Faculty of Arts, New Valley University,

Email

m_aliaa@art.nvu.edu.eg

City

Assiut

Orcid

-

Volume

4

Article Issue

2

Related Issue

39186

Issue Date

2022-12-01

Receive Date

2021-09-06

Publish Date

2022-12-01

Print ISSN

2314-8802

Online ISSN

2314-8810

Link

https://buijhs.journals.ekb.eg/article_282290.html

Detail API

https://buijhs.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=282290

Order

2

Type

Original research articles

Type Code

1,076

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Beni-Suef University International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Publication Link

https://buijhs.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

"Aristotle’s Logic of Syllogism and Mimesis as Applied to Speculating and Imitating Pandemics in St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven (2014) and Amir Tag Elsir’s Ebola 76 (2012)"

Details

Type

Article

Created At

25 Dec 2024