Global Journal of Human-Social Science, A: Arts and Humanities, Volume 23 Issue 5

© 2023. Sharmistha Das. This research/review article is distributed under the terms of the Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). You must give appropriate credit to authors and reference this article if parts of the article are reproduced in any manner. Applicable licensing terms are at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/ 4.0/. The Submerged Scope of the Spanish Flu: Negotiating Representational Challenges in Willa Cather's One of Ours By Sharmistha Das Affiliated to West Bengal State University Abstract- The pandemic of 1918, or more famously the Spanish flu remains a dark and disruptive phenomenon, a scourge in the face of time and history. But what makes it most intriguing is its own oxymoronic entity-its own absent-presence, an experience that was simultaneously ubiquitous and hidden. Such exclusion, when understood as deliberate, remains at the heart of discourses of power and domination. Human civilization is rife with many such practices; be it indiscriminate exploitation of the environment, or the discrimination on grounds of race, caste, colour, gender, sexuality, et al- all based on a systemic delegitimization of “discarded negatives” (Butler). Representation, when empowered with a disruptive force that can push through state sanctioned borders and mainstream interpretive constructs, can emerge as alternative frames that can “see” through the suppressed. Lifting the veil of the archival dust ambient upon long forgotten stories will enable us to excavate narrative possibilities from all that has been silenced, granting them a voice that is long due. This article will be structured into two cluster of materials: the first part will briefly document the extent and spread of the contagion, tracing its evolution from a miasmic atmospheric entity, shifting in waves, towards becoming a horrifying, visible reality. Keywords: pandemic, repressed, cultural memory, epidemiology, trauma, representation, narrative. GJHSS-A Classification: UDC: 821 TheSubmergedScopeoftheSpanishFluNegotiatingRepresentationalChallengesinWillaCathersOneofOurs Global Journal of HUMAN-SOCIAL SCIENCE: A Arts & Humanities - Psychology Volume 23 Issue 5 Version 1.0 Year 2023 Type: Double Blind Peer Reviewed International Research Journal Publisher: Global Journals Online ISSN: 2249-460x & Print ISSN: 0975-587X Strictly as per the compliance and regulations of: