Spatialising the Quarantined Camp in Lawrence Wright’s The End of October

Abstract

Stories about pandemic open up new possibilities of spaces. Traditional conceptions of space are metamorphised into novel contours as we confront and combat a pandemic scenario. Along with human beings, physical spaces are also forced to explore new patterns and norms. The bewildering spread of pandemic highlights the significance of spaces through which a disease navigates. Beginning from quarantining an infected person to containing the spread to burying the dead, spaces play a crucial role in these trying times. The present study attempts to look into the spatiality in pandemic literature and how existing social spaces get reconfigured by analysing the recent pandemic novel The End of October (2020) by Lawrence Wright. The study throws light on how the quarantine center represented in the novel can be viewed through the lens of Giorgio Agamben's concept of the camp.