PANDEMICS THROUGH THE LENS OF ART: ENVISIONING A NEW HUMANISM

Abstract

Epidemics, pandemics, plagues — global health crises — uniquely challenge the ways science evidences its own evolution and how the general public processes threats to their mortality. The extent of scientific knowledge does not determine the existence of plagues but, rather, reflects responses to such plagues; however, the transmission and efficacy of science matters. Art, in its varying forms, is perfect evidence of plague anxieties and the feelings that come with being faced with the threat of disease, and these anxieties warrant careful consideration by the scientific community, just as antigens themselves do. This thesis dives into three periods of plague — the Black Death, the Third Plague Pandemic, and the Spanish Flu — and art that informed each, coming to the conclusion that science and empathy develop disproportionately in the face of mass disease. Although science was quite underdeveloped during the Black Death and grew vastly by the end of the Spanish Flu, this knowledge alone was not enough to mount a successful response to the viral antigen. Instead, inaction, distrust, and self-concern — symptomatic of the same anxieties expressed through plague art — yielded science and health policy ineffective throughout these periods. In moving forward, it is necessary to embrace a new humanism: one that marries scientific advancement with mental grapplings of mortality. In doing so, it becomes possible to witness a merging of science and empathy in a way not spoken of often: in the context of pandemics.