Today we're joined by Sam Cummins of Nymphet Alumni to discuss the timeless American novelist Willa Cather. We talk about the needless politicization of Cather, why Nature is the ultimate identity cleansing force, and how frontier literature has evolved today.

Discussed:

Cather novels:

Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism, Joan Acocella (2000)

The Kingdom of Art, early Cather essays collected by Bernice Slote (1966)

“Becoming Noncanonical: The Case Against Willa Cather,” Sharon O’Brien (1988)

(Homework!: “Getting the Pump,” Jordan Castro in Harper’s)

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