International Cather Seminar examines 'Violence, the Arts & Cather

The International Cather Seminar 2005, titled "Violence, the Arts, & Cather," will focus on the relevance of violence to discussions of literature and culture when it convenes June 18-24. Sessions will be conducted at the Opera House in author Willa Cather's hometown of Red Cloud and on the campus of her alma mater, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Cather has been implicated and engaged in debates on violence in literature ever since Ernest Hemingway castigated her portrayal of World War I battlefields in her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "One of Ours" (1922). Participants and presenters at sessions in Red Cloud and Lincoln will examine the many ways in which Cather explored (and sometimes failed to explore) violence and is effects.

The portrayal of violence in Cather's writings will also be examined in keynote addresses by two distinguished scholars. The first, by Michele Barale, professor of English and women's and gender studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts, will begin at 4 p.m. June 20 at the Red Cloud Opera House. The second, by Terry Eagleton, professor of cultural theory and John Rylans fellow at the University of Manchester in England, will begin at 7:30 p.m. June 22 at the Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. in Lincoln. Both lectures are free and open to the public.

Barale's writings include "A Kwic Concordance to Samuel Beckett's Trilogy: Molloy, Malone Dies, and the Unnamable" (1988). She is one of the editors, along with Henry Abelove and David Halperin, of "The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader" (1995), and has written articles on Ann Bannon, Radclyffe Hall, and "Aliens," as well as a variety of pedagogical issues. Her work focuses on the extra-literary and aesthetic influences that shape Cather's work. Barale has an article forthcoming this summer, "The Arts of Darkness: Willa Cather's Aesthetics," in "Looking Forward, Looking Back."

Eagleton, who was previously Thomas Wharton professor of English literature and the University of Oxford, has been a fellow of five colleges at Oxford and Cambridge universities, and at 21 became the youngest fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, since the 18th century. He is a fellow of the British Academy, the holder of five honorary doctorates, and the author of some 40 books. His latest works include a study of tragedy, "Sweet Violence; After Theory"; and a forthcoming study of terrorism, "Holy Terror."

The Cather International Seminar 2005, the 10th in the biennial series, will be conducted in memory of Sue Rosowski, former Adele Hall professor of English and director of the Cather Project at UNL. Rosowski died in November after a battle with cancer. Conducting several sessions of this year's seminar in Red Cloud fulfills one of Rosowski's longtime goals for the seminar. This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial in Red Cloud.

For registration and other information, visit the Willa Cather Archive Web site at http://cather.unl.edu.

The seminar is presented by UNL and the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation. The keynote addresses are co-sponsored by the Cather Project, the UNL Department of English, the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation and the Nebraska Humanities Council (Eagleton's address is also co-sponsored by the UNL Academic Senate convocations committee).

CONTACTS: Guy Reynolds, Professor, English, and Director, Cather Project, (402) 472-0249; and
Beth Burke, Program Coordinator, Cather Project, (402) 472-1919