Featuring translations and analysis of rare texts, including the revival of an early 20th century Javanese wayang play, our latest edition illustrates the multi-faceted ways in which pandemics affect us and how a conversation between the science of epidemiology and public health, drama and translation are interwoven in interesting and sometimes surprising ways. The contributors also hope that they will serve as a reminder that pandemics have been and will always be part of the human struggle, and that we forget their lessons at our own peril.
Interpreting pandemics through history, text and performance
Written by Siddharth Chandra
Beware the disease of influenza
Written by Nancy K. Florida
An anonymous Javanese text written in response to the flu epidemic of 1918-19, offers its audiences eerily familiar lessons for surviving a pandemic
Petruk 1920 confronts Petruk 2020
Written by Kathryn ‘Kitsie’ Emerson
When renowned dhalang Purbo Asmoro was invited to create a wayang kulit tale based on the 1920 play Awas Lĕlara Inpluwensa (Beware the Disease of Influenza), he was immediately inspired by the challenge.
Reporting on Java’s 1918 influenza pandemic
Written by Siddharth Chandra
Pieter Bastiaan van Steenis’ report on the 1918 influenza pandemic in Java is a rare and detailed account by a colonial health official who experienced its horrors first-hand
