Three Questions for Cather

Class Discussion Activity: Each group will be assigned one of the following three questions. Each group should discuss, and be ready to present three key pieces of evidence that substantiate their response to the prompt. Please also, in turn, develop a question for the group (it can be an encompassing question or a much narrower one) that you’d like to pose, in turn, for the class. 

(1) Richard Millington, describing what makes Cather particularly modern, has written that “The key moments or events in a Cather text are more likely to be acts of heightened or illuminated witnessing—a scene [or story, unattached to the narrative action at times] that etches itself into the mind, the observation of a particular quality of light, the accruing apprehension of a meaning as it is gathered up by an object or ritual [or narrative aside]–rather than climactic events such as the marriage or romance plots dear to traditional fiction” (61). Identity three of these moments or diversions and describe what they mean–if anything–to the patchwork of insights and oversights that comprise Cather’s narrative. You might focus, for example, on scenes that take on a charged quality in the text–standing in for broader themes and ideas–such as Jim’s reflection on Mr. Shimerda’s grave at the end of chapter 16, book 1, or the image of the plow against the sun, which is perhaps the most famous image in the novel (chapter 14, book 2). You might also turn to the story of the tramp or Ole Benson and Crazy Mary, or Blind Arnault. What purpose do such asides serve? Do they distract from the narrative action, or are they the narrative action?

(2) We spoke briefly last class about Cather’s modernism–both formally and thematically. But what do we mean by “modernism” here, and what opposes it? Singal has note of Victorian culture that “At the core of this… culture stood a distinctive set of bedrock assumptions. These included a belief in a predictable universe presided over by a benevolent God and governed by immutable natural laws, a corresponding conviction that humankind was capable of arriving at a unified and fixed set of truths about all aspects of life, and an insistence on preserving absolute standards based on a radical dichotomy between that which was deemed “human” and that regarded as “animal.” On the “human” or “civilized” side of the line fell everything that served to lift man above the beasts–education, refinement, manners, the arts, religion, and such domesticated emotions as loyalty and family love. The “animal” or “savage” realm, by contrast, contained those instincts and passions that threatened self-control, and which therefore had to be repressed at all cost” (Singal 9). As for the modern, he writes that “It begins with the premise of an unpredictable universe where nothing is ever stable, and where accordingly human beings must be satisfied with knowledge that is partial and transient at best. Nor is it possible in this situation to devise a fixed and absolute system of morality; moral values must remain in flux, adapting continuously to changing historical circumstances. To create those values and garner whatever knowledge is available, individuals must repeatedly subject themselves to the trials of experience. Modernism–in contrast to Victorianism–eschews innocence and demands instead to know ‘reality’ in all its depth and complexity, no matter how incomplete and paradoxical that knowledge might be, and no matter how painful” (15-16). Jim’s burden, it could be argued, is the heavy weight of Victorianism, of traditional or civilized culture as it shapes and constrains his engagement with those around him. Where is this weight most limiting or telling? And where do we see Jim breaking through it? Taking the broader view, does Cather share this burden, or does she invite us to take a broader view than the one we can glimpse in Jim’s often limiting narrative?

Frederick Jackson Turner issued his now-famous “frontier thesis” in 1893. In this thesis, he casts the core of American characters as a result of continually being cast into or onto the unknown, which leads to a “perennial rebirth” as individuals “continually [begin] over again on the frontier.” Immigrants arrive, shed their past traits, and adapt to necessity. This, for Turner, is the quintessential american experience, the key driver of American exceptionalism and energy. Is Cather’s novel a “frontier” novel? In what ways? If not, what would make it so? And if not, what kind of novel is it, and what role does the frontier play in its unfolding? Is this another version of the question we asked of the title last Thursday about the emphasis being on “my” or “Antonia”?

 

 

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