Willa Cather (1873-1947)

A selective list of literary criticism for the American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist, Willa Cather, favoring signed articles by recognized scholars, articles published in reviewed sources, and web sites that adhere to the MLA Guidelines for Web Sites. Now with links to reliable editions and first editions.

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Literary criticism

Acocella, Joan. A review by John Swift of Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism. College Literature, Spring 2001.

Butterworth, Keen. A review of a scholarly edition of Oh Pioneers, "Review of Willa Cather," in Transactions of the Society for Textual Scholarship, Vol. 9 (removed from http://www.msstate.edu/Archives/TEXT/vol9/cather.html)

Flannigan, John H. "Words and music made flesh in Cather's 'Eric Hermannson's Soul.'" Studies in Short Fiction, Spring, 1995

Frus, Phyllis; Corkin, Stanley. "Willa Cather's 'pioneer' novels and (not new, not old) historical reading," College Literature, Spring 1999

Holmes, Catherine D. "Jim Burden's Lost Worlds: Exile in My Antonia," Twentieth Century Literature, Fall, 1999

Kot, Paula. "Speculation, tourism, and The Professor's House," Twentieth Century Literature, Winter, 2002

Lindemann, Marilee. A review of Willa Cather: Queering America, (Columbia Univ. Press, 1999). College Literature, Fall 2000, reviewed by Reynolds, Guy. "Cather has become one of the most contested twentieth-century novelists. Current debate lies in the intersection of ideology and feminism, with a specific focus on how 'progressive' a writer Cather was."

Lucenti, Lisa Marie. "Willa Cather's My Antonia: Haunting the Houses of Memory," Twentieth Century Literature, Summer, 2000

Newman, S. "No Place Like Home: Reading Sapphira and the Slave Girl against the Great Depression." In Ann Romines, Willa Cather's Southern Connections: New Essays on Cather and the South. (Univ. Press of Virginia, 2000).

Petry, Alice Hall. A review of Willa Cather: Writing at the Frontier. Studies in Short Fiction, Wntr, 1993

Prchal, Tim. "The Bohemian paradox: My Antonia and popular images of Czech immigrants," MELUS, Summer, 2004

Salas, Angela M. "Willa Cather's Sapphira and the Slave Girl: Extending the boundaries of the body," College Literature, Jun 1997

Saari, Rob. "'Paul's Case': A Narcissistic Personality Disorder, 301.81" Studies in Short Fiction, Summer, 1997

Skaggs, Merrill M. "Viola Roseboro': A prototype for Cather's My Mortal Enemy," Mississippi Quarterly, Winter 2000/2001 (removed from http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3729/is_200001/ai_n8898031)

Zitter, Emmy Stark. "The unfinished picture: Willa Cather's 'The Marriage of Phaedra.'" Literary criticism on an early short story of Cather's, Short Fiction, Spring, 1993

Web sites

The Willa Cather Archive A rich source of Cather materials, including scholarly editions of Oh Pioneers! and My Antonia, reliable digital transcriptions of other Cather first editions, transcriptions of her letters, biographies, photos, access to literary criticism in Cather Studies, and more.

Web site for The Song of the Lark, contains a Willa Cather timeline, notes about the production, and a teaching guide, from the Public Broadcasting Service.

A web site for "A Wagner Matinee." A Willa Cather short story, it was rewritten as a radio play. The web site presents the play, a biography, a discussion of themes, and a teaching guide. From Scribbling Women.

The Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation created an extensive web site on Cather, which includes a list of her works, one issue of their newsletter, and Cather news.

Introduction

Thomas, Susan. Introduction to Willa Cather at the Literary Encyclopedia, Sept. 2007

A Teacher's Guide to Willa Cather from textbook publisher Heath

A guide for Willa Cather from C-Span from their 2001 American Writers series

A biography of Willa Cather from the Public Media Foundation

Editions

Scholarly edition of O Pioneers! (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1992). Complete text at the Willa Cather Archive, University of Nebraska.

Scholarly edition of My Antonia! (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1994). Complete text at the Willa Cather Archive, University of Nebraska.

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