Abstract

Representations of biomedicine are found widely in popular culture: doctor shows, rage virus outbreaks, zombies, pandemics, news reports of exotic illnesses, and so forth. This essay offers a way to understand the rhetorical effects of such representations on audiences. Not every text that represents biomedical phenomena will be at a literal, expository level. Depictions of rage viruses must be fictional and literary. Yet they may have powerful rhetorical effects on audiences. The essay explores a method of homological analysis that can show how such texts may influence an audience rhetorically at the level of form, and across widely disparate texts and experiences.