Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
1987
Abstract
I remain unconvinced that Willa Cather led even the emotional life of a lesbian. Cather, I think, communicates a sympathy for heterosexuality, an increasing remoteness from sexuality altogether, and a valuing of woman "unnatural" because "unAmerican." Cather early suspected-and regretted-that her intimidating reserve about sexuality, moderated by Victorian and Southern gender polity, prohibited the flowering of intimacy. Instead of the risky intimacies, Cather sought what an intellectually strong but sexually reticent woman might seek: stimulating or "useful" friendships-with women and with men. Her major characters repeat the pattern. They experience intense excitements; often they transform obvious sexual emotion into other sorts of exciting (but unrisky) ardor; always, though, they remain untouchable.
Comments
Published in Great Plains Quarterly SUMMER 1987 .Copyright 1987 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska—Lincoln.