74 RüdigerKunow
bacteriology-based U.S. public health system (Leavitt 559; Markel,
Germs20; Wald,Cultures9). From the perspective of cultural critique,
hercasemeritsattentionbecauseheremedicalexpertise(representedby
the then new field of bacteriology) did do important and wide-raging
social and cultural work: the "Typhoid Mary" case presented in the
public mind welcome "scientific" sanction for the rampant anti-
immigrant sentiment of the time, more particularly the "Irish need not
apply" signs in store windows or company offices. And such socio-
cultural resonances were in tune with the Foucauldian observation that
discoursesofknowledgecannotbeseparatedfromeffectsofpower.^24
In a longer historical perspective, Mary Mallon's case stands at the
beginning of increasingly frequent normalizing interventions in the
name of public health into the everyday lives of people, especially
peoplefromtheworkingclasses(seebelowSingeron"epidemiclogic").
These interventions, buttressed by the "faith that science would serve
humanity by curbing disease" (Fox and Stone 38) have always been
more than medical precautions; they can instead be read as acts of
representation(hereunderstoodinbothitssemioticandpoliticalsense),
in Mallon's case also as acts "expressing cultural anxieties about
economic interdependence and racial mixing" (Tomes, "Epidemic
Entertainments"626;Geison124).^25
At the same time, the Mallon case provided occasion not just for a
new and expanded understanding of biological encounters but also an
encounterwithachangedgenderformation.The1910sintheU.S.were
the time of the New Woman, the "unattached" and independentyoung
(^24) This is not an argument in favor of a cultural determinism overriding
legitimate health concerns. Rather, I want to emphasize how communicable
diseases, while a biomedical phenomenon, do not involve the somatic side of
human life alone. There is an interaction going on between somatics and
semantics, and the public representation of their interaction proceeds through
representationswhichareboth,biologicalandcultural,andtheserepresentations
orient to no small degree the ways in which problems are spotted, problematic
personsareidentifiedandlinesofactionaredefined.
(^25) This is not to deny that throughout human history, and long before
bacteriology could offer scientific evidence for actual transmission processes,
communicablediseaseshadalwaysbeenblamedonsocialandculturalotherscf.
Kraut,SilentTravelers2-6,Markel,Germs5-12.