Willa Cather in 1970-90s Women’s and LGBT Print Culture: Exploring Feminist and Queer Representations in Alice Munroe’s “Dulse”, Adrienne Rich’s “For Julia In Nebraska”, and Majorie Pyrse’s “Into the Cañon.”
Location
Ponderosa Room B
Presentation Type
Presentation
Presentation Topic
Willa Cather, Literature, Women's Literature, Archivial Research, Queer Theory, Feminist Theory, Community Activism
Start Date
6-3-2026 10:10 AM
Event Sort Order
8
Abstract
The archive, a physical space with collected documents, is often seen as neutral. Yet, due to how an archive is arranged, how it is funded, and which institutions it is associated with, this seemingly neutral space can still transmit values that undermine the contributions of women and LGBTQ+ individuals. Much scholarship criticizes the archive from a feminist and queer theory standpoint, arguing for community based approaches and perspectives, which can disrupt hegemonic archival research. This project continues the conversation articulated by scholars about the queer and feminist archive, an alternate site of remembering and making knowledge about marginalized lives. This paper adds to this line of inquiry through its specific focus on Willa Cather and how she is represented in the feminist and LGBTQ+ print culture of the 1970s through 1990s. Willa Cather is one of the most well-known and prolific women writers of the American mid-west. She is definitely a remarkable woman, but popular culture displays her as an alienated and an unromantic artist. In fact, her non-normative sexual identity, as a lesbian woman, greatly influenced her work. This paper challenges this notion by examining print culture rooted in the feminist and queer activism of the time: magazines, newspapers, and journals. This is not just a disparate collection of various print materials, rather these materials can be read as the embodiment of a collective community archive. This paper revolves around two central questions: how Willa Cather has been represented and reconstructed through Women’s and LGBTQ+ print culture, and what this reveals about the nature of community archives. I examine three works that can be found within feminist and LGBTQ+ print culture: Alice Munroe’s “Dulse”, Adrienne Rich’s “For Julia In Nebraska”, and Majorie Pyrse’s “Into the Cañon.” This paper highlights the alternate meaning making processes that communities of women and queer individuals were involved in. Community print culture was able to contest mainstream depictions of Cather as an unromantic and alienated writer. Instead, queer representations of Cather acknowledged her non-normative sexual identity and how that came to influence every facet of her remarkable life and writing.
Willa Cather in 1970-90s Women’s and LGBT Print Culture: Exploring Feminist and Queer Representations in Alice Munroe’s “Dulse”, Adrienne Rich’s “For Julia In Nebraska”, and Majorie Pyrse’s “Into the Cañon.”
Ponderosa Room B
The archive, a physical space with collected documents, is often seen as neutral. Yet, due to how an archive is arranged, how it is funded, and which institutions it is associated with, this seemingly neutral space can still transmit values that undermine the contributions of women and LGBTQ+ individuals. Much scholarship criticizes the archive from a feminist and queer theory standpoint, arguing for community based approaches and perspectives, which can disrupt hegemonic archival research. This project continues the conversation articulated by scholars about the queer and feminist archive, an alternate site of remembering and making knowledge about marginalized lives. This paper adds to this line of inquiry through its specific focus on Willa Cather and how she is represented in the feminist and LGBTQ+ print culture of the 1970s through 1990s. Willa Cather is one of the most well-known and prolific women writers of the American mid-west. She is definitely a remarkable woman, but popular culture displays her as an alienated and an unromantic artist. In fact, her non-normative sexual identity, as a lesbian woman, greatly influenced her work. This paper challenges this notion by examining print culture rooted in the feminist and queer activism of the time: magazines, newspapers, and journals. This is not just a disparate collection of various print materials, rather these materials can be read as the embodiment of a collective community archive. This paper revolves around two central questions: how Willa Cather has been represented and reconstructed through Women’s and LGBTQ+ print culture, and what this reveals about the nature of community archives. I examine three works that can be found within feminist and LGBTQ+ print culture: Alice Munroe’s “Dulse”, Adrienne Rich’s “For Julia In Nebraska”, and Majorie Pyrse’s “Into the Cañon.” This paper highlights the alternate meaning making processes that communities of women and queer individuals were involved in. Community print culture was able to contest mainstream depictions of Cather as an unromantic and alienated writer. Instead, queer representations of Cather acknowledged her non-normative sexual identity and how that came to influence every facet of her remarkable life and writing.
Presenter Bio
Jesse Nguyen (they/them) is pursuing a double major in English and Women’s and Gender studies and a minor in LGBTQ+ studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Their research explores the intersection between queer theory, environmental justice, and racial politics. They will graduate in the coming spring, and will pursue a graduate English program in the midwest. Afterwards, they would like to write a book on queer eco-criticism and be a part of a community of gardeners. Jesse’s favorite activity is sitting at a coffee shop with drink that has some obscure fruit syrup.