Known for portraits of pioneers and the frontier, Willa Cather became a journalist and a prolific writer, winning the Pulitzer in 1923, establishing a reputation that has ranged from “merely regional” to major. Planning as a young woman to study medicine, dressing as a man, she has been described as a misogynistic, homophobic lesbian, a woman as known for her literary gifts and confident depictions of immigrants as she is for self-doubt, a feminist in practice, not in theory. Cather remains a figure of contradiction, her life and writings mirroring both hidden and explicit conflicts in American life and culture toward race, class, gender, and the idea of the nation in a land defined by immigration. We will cover some of the short stories and letters as well as three novels. The following editions are recommended, but it’s possible also to find her work online:
Oh, Pioneers! (1913) Norton critical
My Ántonia (1918) Norton critical
Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) Vintage classics
- Lehrende(r): Melissa Knox-Raab