Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Publication Title
College Literature
Abstract
This essay examines Cather's 1923 essay "Nebraska: The End of the First Cycle" and her 1918 novel My Ántonia to analyze her representation of the immigrant figure that simultaneously defines the region (Nebraska) and enriches the story of America. The essay contextualizes Cather's writing within the statutes of nineteenth-century homesteading legislation, which allowed Nebraska to be settled and the nation to expand westward. It first considers opportunities and challenges afforded by homesteading, and then discusses Cather's use of immigrant settlement and the cycles of storytelling it produces to revise monolithic interpretations of the national narrative.
Recommended Citation
Kvidera, Peter, ""A Gratifying Divergence": Immigrant Settlement and the National Narrative in Willa Cather's My Ántonia" (2024). 2024 Faculty Bibliography. 14.
https://collected.jcu.edu/fac_bib_2024/14
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