Understanding Society and Civilization and its Relative Values in Willa Cather’s The Professor’s House

Abstract

After 20 years of publishing, Willa Cather’s first Novel Alexander’s Bridge, was admitted as most interesting novel by the critics. Cather preferred vigorous and bold realities to the romanticized version of life, depicted in the majority of novels written and read by women. Cather embraced the tenets of literary realism and effectively defined herself as a writer outside the feminine tradition. She usually expressed her belief that a novelist should write a true story of the people and was a far more modern writer than critics have traditionally viewed her. She published her most important works during the Movement in literary history, known as modernism. The Movement, which developed and reined in the period between the World Wars I and II was a reaction to and an expression of the social, political, cultural and technological changes. A Social realist, Cather tended to produce chronological narratives and worked within traditional forms.