Great Plains Studies, Center for

 

Date of this Version

Fall 1984

Citation

Great Plains Quarterly Vol. 4, No. 4, Fall 1984, pp. 282-83.

Comments

Copyright 1984 by the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Abstract

This is a book divided-almost against itself. The first half consists of a series of brief essays, the second half a series of annotated bibliographies. The early essays seem caught between a chatty informality and serious scholarship. Added to this apparent indecision about style is a lack of collaboration on focus so that Sundberg's essay, "Early Agricultural Settlement on the Interior Grasslands of North America," seems without significant connection to Fairbanks's essay, "Women and their Visions: Perspectives from Fiction." More importantly, the authors seem confused about the book's purpose. It is called a "sourcebook," which implies a detailed bibliography (which it has), charts, figures, facts, statistics, maps, perhaps even key names to contact as follow-up activities seem appropriate (none of which it has).

Nonetheless, in defying traditional categories by mixing seemingly incompatible forms and styles, the authors found a singular unity in the book's focus on the intercultural (Canada and the United States), an absolutely vital perspective in the book as well as in all levels of education on both sides of all political boundaries. After all, to see how Willa Cather or Margaret Laurence employs the metaphors of the prairies to convey the universalities of the female experience is to begin to understand the impact of the land on the human condition everywhere.

Share

COinS