Welcome back to The Invisible College, my series of literature courses for paid subscribers. The introduction to and schedule for the 2025 season is here. The 2024 archive is here. This episode, which is free in its entirety, is the fourth in a sequence on the American novel. It concerns O Pioneers! by Willa Cather. We discuss Cather’s biography, critical reception, literary influences, claim to modernism, and overall genius; then we study the novel’s vision of mutual creation between people and land, its artistic vision of American ethnogenesis, its dueling visions of love, its complexities of gender and desire. Please like, share, comment, and subscribe! The slideshow corresponding to the episode can be downloaded here:

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