A timely book by Kirsten Ostherr, the Gladys Louise Fox Professor of English and founding director of the Medical Humanities program at Rice University, has been made available online in its entirety at no cost.
“Cinematic Prophylaxis: Globalization and Contagion in the Discourse of World Health” is one of several titles made available for open-access download through June 1 by its publisher, Duke University Press.
In the book, Ostherr tracks visual representations of the outbreaks and contagions across a range of media, from 1940s public health films and the 1995 blockbuster movie “Outbreak” to television programs in the 1980s during the early years of the AIDS epidemic.
In so doing, Ostherr charts the changes — and the alarming continuities — in popular understanding of the connection between pathologized bodies and the global spread of disease.
“Cinematic Prophylaxis” provides essential historical information about how the representation of disease has affected understanding of its origins and vectors.
“Several of the public health films I discuss are available online through the U.S. National Library of Medicine YouTube channel, including the astounding “The Eternal Fight” from 1948, discussed at length in relation to racism and xenophobia in chapter 2 (of Ostherr’s book), ‘'Noninfected but Infectible': Contagion and the boundaries of the visible,’” Ostherr said.
Duke University Press said it is providing free access “in support and solidarity” in order “to help build knowledge and understanding.”