Topic for Spring 2027: Edith Wharton & Willa Cather

A study of the fiction of these two very different American women novelists of the early twentieth century. We'll examine their differences: one is best known as the chronicler of life in aristocratic "old New York," the other as the novelist of life on the Nebraska prairie. Yet a number of similar issues arise in both novelists' work: the nature of female sexuality, the problems of marriage (and, for Cather, of heterosexuality), relationships between generations, the nature of the immigrant and the ethnic "other," the identity of the true American, the nature of the body in health and in illness, tensions between the American West and the East and between rural and urban life, the place of art in American culture. Above all, both novelists, living in an era of rapid change, of industrial development and global military conflict, are preoccupied with the vexed question of the destiny of America.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Open to all students who have taken two literature courses in the department, at least one of which must be 200 level, or by permission of the instructor to other qualified students.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: This is a topics course and can be taken more than once for credit as long as the topic is different each time.