Investigating the impact of the and its relevance in the contemporary world through the PJAEE, 17 (6) (2020) individual and collective memories of the people lived through it.

INVESTIGATING THE IMPACT OF THE SPANISH FLU AND ITS RELEVANCE IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD THROUGH THE INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE MEMORIES OF THE PEOPLE LIVED THROUGH IT. Niranjana, PhD Scholar, Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai [email protected] Dr. G. Bhuvaneswari, Assistant Professor Senior, Vellore Institute of Technology,Chennai [email protected] 9943435572 Niranjana, Dr. G. Bhuvaneswari, Investigating the impact of the Spanish Flu and its relevance in the contemporary world through the individual and collective memories of the people lived through it.-Palarch’s Journal Of Archaeology Of Egypt/Egyptology 17(6), ISSN 1567-214x Abstract:

“Memory studies is an interdisciplinary field, and Literature serves as one of the media of cultural memory as history, art and other forms of media”, said by Astrid Erll. According to Maurice Halbwachs, there exists no individual memory but a collective memory. Our memory is the product of the personal individual experiences informed by the societal practices. This study examines the convergence of the individual and collective memory of the common people, medical historians and scientistswho lived through the Spanish Flupandemic to understand the impact of it through the book, “Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World” by Laura Spinney, a non-fictional account of the Spanish Flu tracing from its origin to the post-flu world. The biographies, stories and letters act as the sites of memory to understand the impact of the Pandemic and its contemporary relevance.

Keywords: Influenza, Pandemic, Memory, Biography, Letters, Memoirs

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Investigating the impact of the Spanish Flu and its relevance in the contemporary world through the PJAEE, 17 (6) (2020) individual and collective memories of the people lived through it.

Introduction

Memory Studies

Memory studies has emerged as the tool for exploring, remembering, and analysing the past with the help of literature, art, history, archaeology, and media as the sites of memory. It is an interdisciplinary field and Literature serves as the symbolic representation of the cultural memory as history, art, and other forms of media. Astrid Erll. (Erll, 145)

‘Memory proceeds selectively. From the abundance of events, processes, persons, and media of the past, it is only possible to remember very few elements. As Ernst Cassirer noted, every act of remembering is a ‘creative and constructive process. It is not enough to pick up isolated data of our past experience; we must really re-collect them, we must organize and synthesize them, and assemble them into a focus of thought’ (Cassirer 1944, 51). The selected elements must be formed in a particular manner to become an object of memory. Such formative processes can be detected in many media and practices of memory; they are also – and in fact primarily – found in literature’

There exists clear parallel between memory and cultural artefacts or in other words, literature, arts, history, and media are symbolic representations of memory. According to Maurice Halbwachs, there exists no individual memory but a collective memory. Our individual memory is the product of the individual experiences informed by the societal practices deriving its idea from Wolfgang Iser’s phenomenological approach towards reading process, wherein he propose that the attitudes and reaction of the reader to the text or the pre-conceived notions of the reader are the experiences which form the basis of interpreting/ reading the text. Therefore, reading/decoding the memoriesimplies the reconstruction of the past with present attitudes and beliefs.(Erll, 17)

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Investigating the impact of the Spanish Flu and its relevance in the contemporary world through the PJAEE, 17 (6) (2020) individual and collective memories of the people lived through it.

‘Halbwachs makes a sharp distinction between history and memory, which he sees as two mutually exclusive forms of reference to the past. Right at the beginning of his comparison of ‘lived’ memory and ‘written’ history in La memoir collective, Halbwachs emphasizes that ‘general history starts only when tradition ends and the social memory is fading or breaking up’For Halbwachs, history deals with the past. Collective memory, in contrast, is oriented towards the needs and interests of the group in the present, and thus proceeds in an extremely selective and reconstructive manner. Along the way, what is remembered can become distorted and shifted to such an extent that the result is closer to fiction than to a past reality. Memory thus does not provide a faithful reproduction of the past – indeed, quite the opposite is true: ‘A remembrance is in very large measure a reconstruction of the past achieved with data borrowed from the present, a reconstruction prepared, furthermore, by reconstructions of earlier periods wherein past images had already been altered’ (ibid., 68). This already points to what half a century later, within poststructuralist discussions, will be called ‘the construction of reality.’’

Maurice’s ideasoverlaps with Jean Baudrillard’s concept of simulacra and simulation where there is no reality but altered realities (hyper realities) That is, the present interpretations of the past are reconstructed by the present or in other words shaped by the present. This dimension of memory can be a useful tool in interpreting the impact of the Spanish flu Pandemic to better equipped for the future . (Erll, 150)

‘As Ansgar Nünning (1997) has shown, literature’s power in culture rests on a number of ‘fictional privileges. Fictive narrators, the representation of consciousness, the integration of unproven and even counterfactual elements into the representation of the past, and the symbolic form of literature. It is these privileges that allow us to distinguish between historical fiction and historiography on the level of the text. But according to the ‘logic of literature’ (Hamburger 1957), the 13756

Investigating the impact of the Spanish Flu and its relevance in the contemporary world through the PJAEE, 17 (6) (2020) individual and collective memories of the people lived through it.

fictional status of literary works and their resultant depragmatization will also lead to certain restrictions, such as a severely limited claim to referentiality, adherence to facts, and objectivity (see Cohn 1999). Literary representations of the past are distinct from historiography in this aspect. They are also distinct from autobiographies and memoirs – however ‘literary’ in style those may be. Having said this, it must also be conceded that in the social sphere these distinctions are by far not as clear-cut as in literary theory. It is especially in connection with cultural remembrance that we find rather complicated performances of what Philippe Lejeune (1975) has called the ‘autobiographical pact’. ‘

Laura Spinney’s non-fictional account exhibits the quality of biography, history, science, and literature. She collated the isolated data of the past concerning the Spanish Flu, “Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World” tracing the Spanish Flu pandemic tracing from its origin to the post-flu world.

This study examines the convergence of the individual and collective memory of common people, medical historians and scientists who lived through the Spanish Flupandemic to understand its impact on humanity and its contemporary relevance.

Analysis:

The non-fictional account of the Spanish Flu by Laura Spinney is the record of the forgotten history of the past. Unlike the existing medical histories of the Spanish Flu, Spinney’s multi-disciplinary approach in investigating the effects of the Spanish Flu act as the site of convergence of the individual and collective memories of the past. The treatise is an account of the recollection of the past reconstructed in the present. It was written after the popular Zika and Ebola epidemics, and it offers multitude of perspectives in the response to Spanish Flu.

In Maurice Halbwachs’ words, there exists no individual memory, but collective memories often created as the result of the convergence of 13757

Investigating the impact of the Spanish Flu and its relevance in the contemporary world through the PJAEE, 17 (6) (2020) individual and collective memories of the people lived through it.

the individual experiences with the cultural memories and events reconstructed. Laura Spinney retrieves the forgotten cultural memories of the Spanish Flu.

The author traces the evolution of the Flu from the pre-historic times dating back to 434 BC to the present, which enable us to understand the inherent characteristics of the virus and its evolution in the present world. The treatise begins with scientific perspectives but gradually moves away from it towards a more historical and humanitarian aspects in understanding the Spanish Flu.

Humans and the Flu virusare similar insuch a way that the flu viruscarries its ontological information as the human genes carry information about their evolution. The concept of remembering, forgetting, and reconstructing is embedded in our genetical composition. Every living organism in the world itself acts as a site of memory with respect to its genetical structure and events of the past. The genetical information coded in our cells either remembered or forgotten based on our evolutionary needs. (Spinney, 192)

‘The medical literature contains around fifty reports of babies born with tails – a glimpse of the arboreal primate in all of us.’

The above excerpt is the evidence of the last-born babies with tails. The genetical coding for the development of the coccyx was forgotten from our DNA structure owing to our evolutionary needs.

Darwin’s natural selection favours the survival of the fittest. The success of the dominant species not only conforms to human species but any living organism. The virulent strains of the microbes reproduce successfully and affect its host. The genetic structure of the virus reconstructs itself for better survival. The series of successful mutations enable them to successfully contract from one species to another.

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Investigating the impact of the Spanish Flu and its relevance in the contemporary world through the PJAEE, 17 (6) (2020) individual and collective memories of the people lived through it.

The individual memories during the times of epidemics are the existing records of the humanities’ reaction to the disaster. These precluded events from the historical records reveals the hidden facets of the epidemic but however not fully. (Spinney, 506)

‘Allied propagandists tried to turn the situation to their advantage. Leaflets were released over German positions informing them that if their own forces were not capable of relieving them, the British would. The leaflets fluttered down over German cities too. When the British journalist Richard Collier was soliciting eye-witness testimony of the Pandemic in the early 1970s, he received a letter from a German man named Fritz Roth who remembered, as a schoolboy, picking one up in Cologne. The civilian population of Germany had been close to starvation since the ‘turnip winter’ of 1916–17 – a failure of the potato crop that exacerbated underlying hardships caused by an Allied naval blockade. The wording of the pamphlet recalled by Roth translated approximately as ‘Say your Our Father nicely, because in two months’ time you will be ours; then you will get good meat and bacon, and then the flu will leave you alone.’ The Flu did leave them alone that summer though it was not completely absent from Europe.’

Letter from a German schoolboy acts as a site of the cultural memory to understand the effects of the epidemic and how British used the disadvantage of the weakness of the German powers due to the crop failure and the Flu to capture the country. Poet Laurate W.B. Yeats was in admiration for Maud Gonne and used her as muse for her poetry, but the historical evidence suggests the forgotten perspective in their relationship due to Spanish Flu.

Another interesting evidence of the forgotten memory is the conversation between the psychoanalyst Carl Jung and the wife of a British officer which act as the beginning of his great work on dream psychoanalysis. (Spiney, 528)

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Investigating the impact of the Spanish Flu and its relevance in the contemporary world through the PJAEE, 17 (6) (2020) individual and collective memories of the people lived through it.

‘Jung was talking to the visiting wife of a British officer. During the conversation she told him that snakes in her dreams always meant illness, and that she had dreamed about a huge sea serpent. When, later, the Flu broke out in the camp, Jung considered it proof that dreams could be prophetic.4 The Flu first appeared in Jung’s camp in July. By 2 August there were reports of flu deaths among French soldiers returning home from Swiss camps. ‘

The historical records of cordons built around the villages during black death, docking and quarantining of ships at the shore in the view of twenty-first century proved to be an insightful cultural memory with respect to the current Pandemic. (Spiney, 619)

‘In the seventeenth century, the English village of Exam in Derbyshire erected a cordon around itself, once it knew it was infected with plague. By the time it was lifted, half the villagers were dead, but the infection had not spread. In the next century, the Habsburgs erected a cordon from the Danube to the Balkans, to keep infected easterners out of western Europe. Complete with watchtowers and checkpoints, it was patrolled by armed peasants who directed those suspected of infection to quarantine stations built along its length. Sanitary cordons fell out of favour in the twentieth century, but the concept was revived in 2014.’

These written records of medical history were the individual and collective memories of the people who were experiencing it first-hand and the people witnessing it and useful in gaining insight in to the patient conditions and provide unreported evidences in understanding the disease. (Spiney, 651)

‘I never smelt anything like it before or since,’ recalled one nurse. ‘It was awful because there was poison in this virus.Teeth fell out. Hair fell out. Some did not even show any signs before simply collapsing where they stood. Delirium was common. They became overly excited and agitated,’ wrote a doctor in . ‘

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Investigating the impact of the Spanish Flu and its relevance in the contemporary world through the PJAEE, 17 (6) (2020) individual and collective memories of the people lived through it.

As Foucault puts it, power comes with knowledge, but the dominant discourses were determined by the people in power and hence both are complementary. Hegemonic powers blamed the third world countries for the origin of the disease due to the lack of proper hygiene and sanitary measures, but in fact the disease was originated from America, but the first reported case was from Spain.

The interplay of the political and the cultural factors affects the containing measures in Zamora during the times of Flu. During the beginning of the twentieth century, religious beliefs were dominant over science at Zamora. People feared God and diseases were treated as the result of punishment from God.

The media and newspapers played the major role of disseminating the news about the Pandemic throughout the world.

The auto-biographical narratives of aBrazilian writer and physician Pedro Nava demonstrates the traumatic memories of the Spanish Flu.

The epidemic has pushed not only people to extinction but also the resemblances of the culture associated with them. As per the data, Vanuatu Island had lost twenty languages and cultures associated with it due to the Spanish Flu and other epidemics. Reconstructing the collective memories of the people belong to that group can provide an alter view of the Flu. The post Flu and post-war world saw increase in fertility rates dramatically to make up for the lost population. and other European countries saw fifty percent growth in fertility rates. Literature written during post-war and flu reflects the forgotten/untold memories of the Spanish Flu. The traumatic effects of the Flu in individual life takes shape or condensed in the form of poetry and fictional literature.

Memory Lessons from Spanish Flu on the current Pandemic

The greatest events of the past such as war and epidemics were recorded in history and in science which act as the starting point for

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Investigating the impact of the Spanish Flu and its relevance in the contemporary world through the PJAEE, 17 (6) (2020) individual and collective memories of the people lived through it.

inventions and refinements of human relationships. The turmoil of Spanish Flu contributed to the advancements and exponential growth in the field science and technology. In the same way, the lessons learnt from COVID may help construct a robust healthcare system and early detection and reporting mechanisms in all the countries.

COVID Pandemic and Spanish Flu are both from viruses and the patients displayed similar symptoms which were originally disregarded as Flu like symptoms. The epidemic of Spanish Flu was over, even before it was concluded to originate from Virus, but in the case of the current Pandemic, the world of scientists has already started working on the cure. This reflects humanities’ position in fighting against the invisible enemy. Memories and cultural artefacts play a major role in the advancement of medical science and technology.

Every Pandemic or Flu has not only killed people but paved the way for evolution of new cultural practices out of the interplay of existing cultural practices and changing attitudes and beliefs of the society due to technological advancements. Just as the revolution in education technology foresees the extinction of in-person classrooms during the current Pandemic.

COVID’s isolation and quarantine increased the fertility rate of people in countries. People were eating healthy food and travel less which naturally leads to higher chances of conception and fertility.

One of the greatest differences between the Flu and the COVID pandemic is that the Spanish Flu had happened during the time of first world war and there was chronic depression due to war and Flu. People were combating two enemies at the same time. As Vera Britain mentioned, “Lost Generation” to referred to young soldiers lost their life due to war. The number of admissions to the asylums were increasing seven times during post -Flu than the earlier times as the rise in the number of cases or calls for counsellors and psychologists during the time of

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Investigating the impact of the Spanish Flu and its relevance in the contemporary world through the PJAEE, 17 (6) (2020) individual and collective memories of the people lived through it.

COVID. Predominantly the people admitted to the asylums were post flu survivors.

The time, nature and severity of the Pandemics may be different but humanities’ reaction towards it remains the same. Therefore, the need to reconstruct the memories of the Spanish Flu through literature, art and other media have become the necessary task for the twentieth century scholars to better face the future pandemics.

Conclusion:

There were different perspectives and attitudes existing with respect to the Flu. Once the people witnessed it died, the memories of them die along with them except for its life manifestations in the next generation, but wars are remembered and represented in different forms. Memories of the war if not all, are preserved in cultural artefacts. But a pandemic memory take time to develop or become a matured memory. Psychologists Henry Roediger and Magdalena Abel of Washington university wrote a research paper on collective memory on Pandemic. According to them, collective memory is rather simpler and encompasses salient beginning, turning and end points of an event. Pandemic memories lack narrative structure unlike wars. Different narrative structures for the pandemic can be emerged by reconstructing the past. As Arthur Mole said, Wars and Plagues are not forgotten but are often carried as collective memories of the past. What we came to know as Spanish Flu and Plague were manifested in books, media, and history as a cultural remembrance of the past which enable us to handle the present epidemic optimistically. The memory of Black Death during the Spanish Flu was emerged but failed to initiate provocative action in the medical field due to the lack of the surviving sites of memory to act upon. But during the current outbreak, there are sites of surviving memory as pre- conceived knowledge to act upon the Pandemic.

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Investigating the impact of the Spanish Flu and its relevance in the contemporary world through the PJAEE, 17 (6) (2020) individual and collective memories of the people lived through it.

The Spanish Flu had devastated the entire humanity but act as the beginning of great inventions in medical science and technology and prepare humanity for the future Pandemics. Even then, there are still lessons to be learnt from every epidemic the world faces. The memories of the Russian Flu, Bubonic Plague, Typos, smallpox, and measles prepared humanity for the next course of action. In the same way, the current Pandemic will prepare humanity to better face the invisible enemy.

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