In this brilliant, impassioned and controversial book, New Yorker critic Joan Acocella argues that twentieth-century literary critics from the Left and Right have misused Willa Cather and her works for their own political ends, and, in doing so, have either ignored or obscured her true literary achievement. In an acute and often very funny critique of the critics, Acocella untangles Cather's reputation from decades of politically motivated misreadings, and proposes her own clear-headed view of Cather’s genius. At once a graceful summary of Cather's life and work, and a refreshing plea that books be read for themselves, Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism will also inspire readers to return to one of America's great novelists.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Expanding her 1995 essay "Cather and the Academy," New Yorker dance critic Acocella wittily charts decades of politically influenced Cather criticism and suggests an approach that balances politics with "a sustained attention to what the artist is saying." In the 1910s and early '20s, Acocella says, the author of My Antonia (1918) was considered by Mencken and others to be part of the new "antiestablishment, democratic" American fiction of poor rural people. By the 1930s, she was seen by Granville Hicks and others as a backward romantic unwilling to join the movement to "destroy and rebuild" American society. In the 1950s, Acocella continues, Cather became the "Classical/Christian Idealist." Since the 1970s, Cather has been outed as a lesbian in essays and a "dreaded psychosexual biography," allowing her to be "captured by the Left." Such politically oriented criticism, Acocella concludes, is ephemeral and limiting, yielding only "one-note criticism: all excoriation, all easy triumphs." She bemoans: "Is this the most important question we can ask artists of the past: whether their politics agree with ours?" Pointing to another method, Acocella examines patterns in Cather's life to determine her unabashedly unpolitical (and overlooked) "tragic vision" of an unfair but possibly dignified life. Acocella is pointed and funny in her analysis (on current critics: "No tree can grow, no river flow, in Cather's landscapes without this being a penis or menstrual period") and compelling in her request to move beyond politics. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
A first-class book, a landmark of sorts. . . . Cather emerges as what she really is, a person of great literary accomplishment, a true cultural
beacon. --RWB Lewis
“She is…a marvelous, canny writer.”–Terry Castle, London Review of Books
"Acocella’s book shines with exemplary good sense. . . . She is a sure witted judge of books." A.S. Byatt, The New York
Review of Books
“As a study of the politics of literary reputation [this book] is exceptional; as a serene appreciation of a great writer's life and work, it is poetic; as a reminder to critics of a the function of criticism, it is harrowing. This book needs to be read."
--Robert Thacker, American Literature
“This devastatingly concise book isn’t going to win its fearless author any prizes — she marches through the ranks of Cather scholars the way Sherman marched through Georgia — but anyone who has had it up to here with political correctness should buy a copy . . . and get ready to cheer” — Terry Teachout, National Review
beacon. --RWB Lewis
“She is…a marvelous, canny writer.”–Terry Castle, London Review of Books
"Acocella’s book shines with exemplary good sense. . . . She is a sure witted judge of books." A.S. Byatt, The New York
Review of Books
“As a study of the politics of literary reputation [this book] is exceptional; as a serene appreciation of a great writer's life and work, it is poetic; as a reminder to critics of a the function of criticism, it is harrowing. This book needs to be read."
--Robert Thacker, American Literature
“This devastatingly concise book isn’t going to win its fearless author any prizes — she marches through the ranks of Cather scholars the way Sherman marched through Georgia — but anyone who has had it up to here with political correctness should buy a copy . . . and get ready to cheer” — Terry Teachout, National Review
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Case Study in the Politics of Books,
By
This review is from: Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism (Hardcover)
In a lucid, readable style Acocella explains how in the field of Cather studies, common sense has left the building and the lunatic fringe has set up camp. To many, it does not matter how fine a author Cather was but whether she was enough of a lesbian and leftist to qualify as an Approved Writer for the academy. Acocella explains with great panache how one can be a Republican and self-styled old maid like Cather and still be a great American writer. Riveting reading.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Over-written and underread,
By
This review is from: Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism (Paperback)
I've read a number of Joan Acocella's pieces in the New Yorker and they are always great fun to read, but they are not literary scholarship and should not masquerade as such. This is a polemical work that has an axe to grind against academic feminists. Her discussions of literary scholarship are both naive and simplistic; for example, she does not even mention the primary literary theorist who analyzed Willa Cather's work in the 1990's, Judith Butler of UC-Berkeley. Butler's work is much more nuanced than Acocella's thesis would allow and is definitely not part of some academic conspiracy to paint Cather as a lesbian.
I remain disappointed in the University of Nebraska Press for publishing this kind of shoddy work. It pains me greatly that some readers would rather read Acocella's lively but biased work instead of the work of respected scholars who have spent years of their lives analyzing and teaching Cather's work. As a reasoned corrective, I suggest Janis Stout's work Willa Cather: The Writer and Her World.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
There's Hope for Criticism After All,
By A Customer
This review is from: Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism (Hardcover)
Joan Acocella casts a witty and penetrating eye on Cather's wildly varying treatment at the hands of both right-wing and left-wing literary critics. This book is a must-read for anyone who's weary of pretentious, precious academic criticism that strays alarmingly far from the text in order to claim an author for a particular political camp. Acocella is a wonderful writer; every thought, every sentence in this book is a delight. Best of all, she makes you want to re-read Cather, which of course can only make you happy.
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