Degree
Master of Arts
Program
Theory and Criticism
Supervisor
Tim Blackmore
Abstract
This thesis examines how the concept of virality is articulated in popular culture, and the connection that this articulation shares with notions of the virus in philosophical thought. The first chapter traces the emergence of a new wave of virus media following the geopolitical changes following the end of the Cold War, and the further shifts that have occurred in how the virus is culturally considered. The second chapter examines the politics of a phenomenological encounter with media depicting viruses. The third and final chapter discusses how understandings of the virus shape the notion of community as both a material and metaphysical construct.
Recommended Citation
McFadden, Daniel, "Viral Possibilities: Media, the Body, and the Phenomenon of Infection" (2015). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 2999.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/2999
Included in
Continental Philosophy Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, Other Film and Media Studies Commons