Thanks for tackling this interesting book....an Indian professor in Germany discussing an American prairie novel. You can't make this up. The Latin phrase.....Optima dies prima fugit (one's best days flee first) graces the title and sums up the book. Cather worshiped youth, and the emphasis on remembering youthful dreams and the sadness of getting old is one of the themes that occurs often through her work. My An-to-NEE-ah is not my favorite Cather book, but the one I was introduced to as a student. It is beautiful, as you imply, and this contrast of west and east, rural and city, and the joys of culture are present in all her best work. She is an American original an one of my favorites.
I would add that Anotonia’s reversion back to speaking Bohemian and not English showed that she chooses her Old World Western values. By giving up her speaking of English and going to town and instead working on the farm again she rejects modern sophisticated Eastern life.
But, in spite of the isolation of the Nebraska people from the mechanized mass life of the Northeast, they are nevertheless caught within the coil of a system which defines them in terms of their ethnicity, race, gender, socioeconomic class, and the inborn aspects of their character, such as the strength or weakness of their personalities and the nature of their talent. Based on this idea, I call Willa Cather's prairie fiction naturalist literature. In fact, I consider her naturalism more varegiated and infinitely more based on the ecological naturalist's sense of things than the naturalism of any other identified naturalist writer I know about.
Thanks for tackling this interesting book....an Indian professor in Germany discussing an American prairie novel. You can't make this up.
The Latin phrase.....Optima dies prima fugit (one's best days flee first) graces the title and sums up the book. Cather worshiped youth, and the emphasis on remembering youthful dreams and the sadness of getting old is one of the themes that occurs often through her work. My An-to-NEE-ah is not my favorite Cather book, but the one I was introduced to as a student. It is beautiful, as you imply, and this contrast of west and east, rural and city, and the joys of culture are present in all her best work. She is an American original an one of my favorites.
Imagine coming across an Indian study of My Antonia! Greetings from Canada.
I would add that Anotonia’s reversion back to speaking Bohemian and not English showed that she chooses her Old World Western values. By giving up her speaking of English and going to town and instead working on the farm again she rejects modern sophisticated Eastern life.
Thanks mam, great speech..
AHN-to-NEE-ah is the preferred pronunciation
But, in spite of the isolation of the Nebraska people from the mechanized mass life of the Northeast, they are nevertheless caught within the coil of a system which defines them in terms of their ethnicity, race, gender, socioeconomic class, and the inborn aspects of their character, such as the strength or weakness of their personalities and the nature of their talent. Based on this idea, I call Willa Cather's prairie fiction naturalist literature. In fact, I consider her naturalism more varegiated and infinitely more based on the ecological naturalist's sense of things than the naturalism of any other identified naturalist writer I know about.
One of ours