Ideological uses of medical discourses in early modern English plague writings

this study sets out to examine an important aspect concerning the process of shaping of ideologies and mentalities in Elizabethan and Stuart England by analyzing the co-existence, clash and partial accommodation in miscellaneous writings of competing notions of plague entailing varying degrees of compliance with official policies of cure and containment of the disease. Specific focus is upon distinctive uses of medical language and the reception, adaptation and manipulation of current medical notions for ideological purposes.