Nature and Community in Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! 

Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! (1913) describes the natural and social transformations of Nebraska’s Great Plains in the late 19th Century, when a vast wilderness went under the plow and immigrant farmers created a new American identity. This course’s two instructors will draw on their different academic backgrounds – American literature and plant ecology – to lead a close reading and open discussion of the novel.  Classes will focus on how ecological theory, particularly concerning plant succession, might illuminate Cather’s representations of changes in both natural and human communities. No knowledge of Willa Cather or plant ecology is required.

Readings:

Willa Cather, O Pioneers!, ISBN 978-0140187755 (preferred edition) or any other edition available in used bookstores or online or digitized on the Willa Cather Archive.

Cheryl Swift is Professor Emerita of Biology and Environmental Science at Whittier College in Whittier, California. John Swift is Professor Emeritus of English at Occidental College in Los Angeles. They have been having a conversation about Cather, plants, and ecology for several decades.