Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
Summer 2011
Citation
Great Plains Quarterly 31:3 (Summer 2011).
Abstract
Cather Studies continues to assemble and inspire the most well-informed writing on Willa Cather's life and literature. The twenty-three essays in this volume further elevate Cather's reputation for meticulous attention to detail when presenting various cultures in her fiction. As the collection derives from the 2007 International Cather Seminar cohosted in Paris and Abbey St. Michel de Frigolet, essays regularly draw from French history, including the period spanning from Cather's first visit in 1902 through World War I. Consequently, the most analyzed novel is One of Ours (1922), yet The Professor's House (1925), Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927), and Shadows on the Rock (1931) also receive considerable scrutiny.
Most analysis of One of Ours appears in part one, "Cather and France, Cather and French Literature." Several essays debate how the Great Plains influenced Cather as she explored other locales and cultures. Whereas the novel's Claude Wheeler overcomes the despondency he felt in Nebraska by finding a more cultured world in France, Elsa Nettles's essay considers how "[al prairie childhood did not deprive Cather of the literature, the memory, and the power to preserve it in art." Similarly, Julie OlinAmmentorp suggests that Cather "thought of the whole United States as her home" and considered France "as a place to admire, to enjoy, to emulate, and of course, to visit extensively." Several essays view Cather as an artist who never replaced or lost an influence as she read, traveled, and reflected on her relationships.
Comments
Copyright © 2011 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska.