Synopses & Reviews
Willa Cather spent her first nine years in the Shenandoah Valleyof Virginia, where her family had lived for five generations. Even after theCathers' move to Nebraska, she came of age in an emphatically southern extendedfamily, surrounded by Virginia stories, customs, and controversies. As Eudora Weltyhas declared, She did not come out of Virginia for nothing. Throughout her career, Cather's fiction drew strength from the people, places, and issues of theReconstruction South of her birth, culminating in her final novel, Sapphira and theSlave Girl.
This collection of essays is the firstto look at this important southern connection in Cather's writing life. Ann Romineshas brought together eminent Cather critics and fresh new voices. Judith Fetterleyand Lisa Marcus restore Cather's southern origins to a central place in her career.Robert K. Miller reads My Mortal Enemy as a Reconstruction narrative, and PatriciaYaeger theorizes the racial language of Cather's landscapes. Among several essays onSapphira, Mako Yoshikawa's and Tomas Pollard's contributions explore the novel'sracial and sexual dynamics and abolitionist concerns. Cynthia Griffin Wolff viewsCather's youthful experiments with clothes and gender as responses to contemporarytheater and her mother's southern feminine style. Other critics compare Cather toother Southern writers: Allen Tate, Ellen Glasgow, Flannery O'Connor, and ToniMorrison.
Grounded both in traditional literarycriticisms and in cultural studies, these sixteen essays make a compelling claim forthe importance of Cather's southernconnections.
Contributors:
RoseanneV. Camacho, University of LouisvilleJudith Fetterley, University at Albany, StateUniversity of New YorkLisa Marcus, Pacific Lutheran UniversityMarilyn MobleyMcKenzie, George Mason UniversityRobert K. Miller, University of St. ThomasElsaNettels, College of William and MaryShelley Newman, University of BritishColumbiaTomas Pollard, Texas A&M UniversityAnn Romines, The GeorgeWashington UniversityMary R. Ryder, South Dakota State UniversityMerrill MaguireSkaggs, Drew UniversityJanis P. Stout, Texas A&M UniversityJoseph R. Urgo, Bryant CollegeGayle Wald, The George Washington UniversityCynthia Griffin Wolff, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPatricia Yaeger, University of MichiganMakoYoshikawa, Harvard University