Gas masks: material culture, memory, and the senses

Abstract

Gas masks are distinctive, iconic, and evocative objects. As a technology, a uniform, a symbol, and a mask, the gas mask defies simple categorization. In this article I use memory narratives to examine the active social lives of children's gas masks in Second World War Britain; their uses, misuses, and disposal. By focusing on the unique sensory aspect of the gas mask, I consider a range of interconnected themes, including the effects of poison gas, the aesthetics of childhood learning, and the connections between memory and the senses. This study builds on recent criticisms of social constructivism and ‘asymmetry’ in the study of people and material culture; the child's gas mask thus emerges not only as a social and physical mediator between children and the world at war they inhabited, but as an actor shaping the aesthetic experience and memories of that world. Résumé Le masque à gaz est un objet distinctif, iconique, évocateur. Équipement technologique autant qu'uniforme, symbole et masque, il défie les catégorisations simples. L'auteur utilise ici des récits de souvenirs pour étudier la vie sociale active des masques à gaz pour enfants dans la Grande‐Bretagne de la seconde Guerre mondiale, leur utilisation, leurs abus, leur mise au rebut. En se concentrant sur l'aspect sensoriel unique des masques à gaz, l'auteur aborde plusieurs thèmes interconnectés : effets des gaz toxiques, esthétique de l'apprentissage dans l'enfance, liens entre mémoire et sens. Cette étude se fonde sur la critique récente du constructivisme social et de « l'asymétrie » dans l'étude des peuples et des cultures matérielles. Le masque à gaz pour enfant apparaît ainsi non seulement comme un médiateur social et physique entre l'enfant et le monde en guerre dans lequel il vivait, mais comme un acteur donnant forme à une expérience esthétique et aux souvenirs de ce monde.

The Enemy as Confounding Other: Interpersonal Perception and Displacement in Italian Memories of the Resistance and German Occupation of 1943–1945

“…Whether through interview, fieldwork or archival analysis, a pursuit of the senseworlds and the imaginations of actors in a conflict or post-war context fleshes out the interplay of memory, storytelling and the senses as lived experience (Black 2013;Henig 2012;Moshenska 2008Moshenska , 2010Navaro-Yashin 2012;Saunders 2004Saunders , 2009). Saunders and Moshenska in particular have changed the way in which we think about battlefields, trenches, air raid shelters and bunkers; they focus on the experience of the people within these structures, rather than thinking of them as a spectacle negotiated from afar.…”

Por uma Arqueologia Feminista da ditadura no Brasil (1964-1985)

“…Maíldes Alves de Mello (2008) "O jantar dos inocentes: a saga dos expurgados gaúchos". Frei Betto (1982) Moshenska (2008Moshenska ( , 2009Moshenska ( , 2010, González-Ruibal (2008, Buchli & Lucas (2001), Harrisson & Schofield (2009) Bianchini (2015); Suárez (2014Suárez ( , 2016. Pesquisas desta natureza, em especial, na América Latina, assumiram um caráter singular, tanto no sentido da produção de conhecimento sobre a Ditadura quanto no que diz respeito à produção de provas judiciais e de relacionamento com áreas forenses (SALERNO, 2009).…”

Arqueologia da repressão e da resistência e suas contribuições na construção de memórias

“…Além de descobrir maneiras que o Estado arranjou para perpetuar a condição de "desaparecido", dificultando o reconhecimento e identificação dessas pessoas. Moshenska (2010) realizou um estudo arqueológico sobre máscaras de gás infantis da Segunda Guerra Mundial na Bretanha. Sua pesquisa tomou por base as memórias narrativas de pessoas que viveram a experiência de utilizar essas máscaras de gás no tempo da guerra.…”