Reflections of Epidemic Diseases in Dystopic Works: An Example of "An Trial of Blindness"

Abstract

Throughout human history of mankind, many epidemics have arisen, and these diseases have been frequently the subject of novels and movies. The spread of the Covid-19 virus has caused the works on epidemic diseases to come back to the agenda and it has caused to be reconsidered for this issue in the new period works. One of these literary works, the novel “Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira” (Blindness) which is written by Saramago in 1995, is essentially a dystopian work that seeks an answer to “Well, what if all people suddenly went blind for no reason?”. While the author deals with the conflicts in the modern world, the collapse of conscience and moral values through the image of blindness, at the same time he is striving to give aesthetic pleasure to the reader. The work, which has also been adapted to cinema with the same name, maintains actuality even today. This study consists of comparison between the novel “Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira” (Blindness) and the movie Blindness (2008) which was originally adapted to the novel. Literature review, textual analysis and content analysis were used as methods. The comparison is based on the discussion of the social effects of the COVID-19 virus which emerged in 2020 and spread all over the world.