This book examines Willa Cather's conceptions through her numerous works. Hively's study combines Cather's interest in the historians, the philosophers, and the mythographers, to examine nine of her novels on three levels. First, it postulates a cyclical design, beginning with O Pioneers! and ending with Shadows on the Rock, which traces a rise, maturity, and fall of the civilization of the American West, and presents a new beginning in the final books. The second level relates to Vico's theory that language follows and adapts to succeeding periods of civilization's cycle and that genre, a convention of language, has a connection with a particular age, expressing a relationship to the world view of the time. The third level is religion, specifically the mystery religions that pervaded that Roman world and marked the early stages of civilization. Documentation here relies much on earlier critics, many of them contemporaries of Cather who, more often than do the modern critics, comment on the nationalist and religious themes of the novels. Contents: Acknowledgments; Introduction; THE LAW BEHIND THE VEIL; Cather's Novel Cycle; Vichian Philosophy; The Mystery Religions; PRAIRIE DAWN: THE AGE OF GODS; O Pioneers!; The Song of the Lark; My Antonia; THE MEMORY OF OUR VANISHED KINGDOM: THE AGE OF HEROES; One of Ours; A Lost Lady; IN MEDIA VITA: THE AGE OF MEN; The Professor's House; My Mortal Enemy; WITH ATTRIBUTES OF GODS: RICORSO; Death Comes for the Archbishop; Shadows on the Rock; SOMETHING COMPLETE AND GREAT; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Hively positions Cather in the context of the 'fundamental philosophies that have been the basis for thought in Western history.'>>>> (Guy Reynolds Choice )
A splendid study of Cather's major works fulfilling the promise of those illuminating studies of Cather and myth that the author published several years ago....coherent, original, and in places startling to someone who already knows a lot about Cather.>>> (David Stouck Choice )
...impressive, painstakingly researched...She compellingly argues that Cather incorporates elements of preclassical and classical mystery religions to locate the history of the frontier in a context of universal significance.>>>> (David Stouck American Literary Scholarship 1994 )
...successfully argues that Cather's deployment of proper names extends a mythic dimension... recommended for graduate collections and to students of critical theory.>>>> (Choice )
...successfully argues that Cather's deployment of proper names extends a mythic dimension... recommended for graduate collections and to students of critical theory. (Choice )
Hively positions Cather in the context of the 'fundamental philosophies that have been the basis for thought in Western history.' (Guy Reynolds Choice )
A splendid study of Cather's major works fulfilling the promise of those illuminating studies of Cather and myth that the author published several years ago....coherent, original, and in places startling to someone who already knows a lot about Cather. (David Stouck Choice )
...impressive, painstakingly researched...She compellingly argues that Cather incorporates elements of preclassical and classical mystery religions to locate the history of the frontier in a context of universal significance. (David Stouck American Literary Scholarship 1994 )
A splendid study of Cather's major works fulfilling the promise of those illuminating studies of Cather and myth that the author published several years ago....coherent, original, and in places startling to someone who already knows a lot about Cather.>>> (David Stouck Choice )
...impressive, painstakingly researched...She compellingly argues that Cather incorporates elements of preclassical and classical mystery religions to locate the history of the frontier in a context of universal significance.>>>> (David Stouck American Literary Scholarship 1994 )
...successfully argues that Cather's deployment of proper names extends a mythic dimension... recommended for graduate collections and to students of critical theory.>>>> (Choice )
...successfully argues that Cather's deployment of proper names extends a mythic dimension... recommended for graduate collections and to students of critical theory. (Choice )
Hively positions Cather in the context of the 'fundamental philosophies that have been the basis for thought in Western history.' (Guy Reynolds Choice )
A splendid study of Cather's major works fulfilling the promise of those illuminating studies of Cather and myth that the author published several years ago....coherent, original, and in places startling to someone who already knows a lot about Cather. (David Stouck Choice )
...impressive, painstakingly researched...She compellingly argues that Cather incorporates elements of preclassical and classical mystery religions to locate the history of the frontier in a context of universal significance. (David Stouck American Literary Scholarship 1994 )
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