Cinematic Representation of Early Modern Women and Epidemics

Abstract

I n many different types of films produced across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that have depicted epidemics, women have been visualized according to two recurring characteristic images. On the one hand, women have been portrayed as actual or symbolic "carriers" or "spreaders" of disease-sometimes as a punishment for perceived immorality-and usually connected to female characters deviating from the gender roles prescribed during epidemics, which were often focused on domesticity. 1 On the other hand, women have been shown in films to take on heavy burdens during epidemic outbreaks-often by caring for others, apparently selflessly-a subject that has been highlighted during the world's struggles