Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
2006
Abstract
In this collection of thirteen essays Lindemann successfully meets her goal of offering recent criticism that recenters Cather as a writer who responded fully to the "changing social and demographic conditions" of her time. The essays indeed encourage reading "against the grain of Cather's escapism" in a range of "interpretative possibilities." Particularly useful are essays exploring little-examined areas of Cather scholarship, including the late Susan Rosowski's study of the comic sense of self in Cather's works and Lisa Marcus's discussion of Cather and the "geography of Jewishness." Rosowski resituates Claude Wheeler's yearning for something splendid in One of Ours within the comedic tradition of the optimistic sacred fool who is hardly a tragic figure. Marcus's essay, though overlooking subtle tones and sarcasm that might clarify Cather's ambivalence toward Jewishness, provides excellent background on the Jewish culture of New York in Cather's day and elucidates the dual roles Jews play in Cather's works, that is, the "embodiment of American industry" and "excessive perversion of the American ideal." One regrets, however, that this essay begins with pointed criticism of Joan Acocella's Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism (2000) and inadvertently becomes a precursor to Jonathan Goldberg's vitriolic attack on Acocella in the subsequent essay. Goldberg, while well delineating variant critical responses to Cather's sexual politics, detracts from his otherwise cogent argument by devolving into a multi-page and scathing "review" of Acocella.
Comments
Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 26:4 (Fall 2006). Copyright © 2006 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.