Envisioning Disease, Gender, and War: Women's Narratives of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

The 1918 influenza pandemic, World War I’s lethal twin, has been neglected in the Western world for almost a century, taking on the aura of a cultural and scientific mystery. This critical study illuminates the neglected intersection of war, disease, and gender as represented in an important subgenre of World War I literature. It calls into question public versus private perceptions of time, mass media, urban spaces, emotion, and the increasingly uncertain status of the future.