Can past experience help us make sense of the events we’re living through today? How different was life for people placed under forced quarantine in previous eras compared to our own? How has the perception of human agency—and that of other entities, such as viruses and microbes—evolved over the course of the modern age? What does personal responsibility mean during times of the global crisis—toward ourselves, toward others, and toward the state?

In this lecture, Nari Shelekpaev, Associate Professor at the Faculty of History at the European University at St. Petersburg, explores these and other questions through the lens of two iconic works of Italian literature, along with several texts from the field of global history.