Joan Acocella (1945–2024)

I read this book when it first came out and had a hard time not arguing against some of Acocella's assertions, particularly her stance against feminist academics, which is the heart of this book. After this second reading it still seems like Acocella has an axe to grind against feminist academics, particularity those who claim Cather as a lesbian. I'm personally quite happy that Cather has been claimed as a lesbian. This book gives the reader an idea of how Cather's reputation has ebbed & flowed over the decades according to the political and cultural needs of her critics and readers, but it does suffer from her often dismissive attacks against interpretations or schools of thought with which Acocella disagrees. Academic literary scholarship is a weird world, sometimes it seems like another planet, and Acocella is critiquing that world. She is reactionary and dismissive, yet I enjoyed re-reading this book (perhaps because I'm no longer an academic). It is probably only of interest to hard-core Cather fans who are familiar with academic literary scholarship.… (mehr)