How the 1918 influenza pandemic shaped art and culture

The World

The 1918 influenza outbreak infected roughly one-third of the world’s population at the time, yet — on the surface — it didn’t seem to leave its mark on art and literature the way World War I did. But scholar Elizabeth Outka, author of “Viral Modernism: The Influenza Pandemic and Interwar Literature,” argues the pandemic’s influence is an undercurrent that runs through many works of the period. Host Marco Werman speaks with Outka. 

Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.