1. Willa Cather, The Professor's House Lecture II
Ramon Saldivar
Stanford University

2. The Professor’s House, 1925 A Domestic Fable
Edith Lewis, “The Professor’s House is the most personal of Willa Cather’s novels.”
Professor Godfrey St. Peter’s story
His student, Tom Outland’s story
11/12/2018
Cather, Professor's House

3. Origins of American Identity on the Frontier
Frederick Jackson Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”
Perry Miller, Errand into the Wilderness
Theodore Roosevelt, “Americanism”, “The Strenuous Life”
11/12/2018
Cather, Professor's House

4. The Homosocial Romance
Narrative structure:
Book I: The Family
Book II: Tom Outland’s Story
Book III: The Professor
(Professor’s story (Tom’s story) Professor’s story)
Professor’s love for Tom (Tom’s love for Rodney)
11/12/2018
Cather, Professor's House

5. Cather, Professor's House
Tom and Roddy
“Dangerous crossing” p. 223
Homosexuality and the American West
Why must Cather be indirect?
11/12/2018
Cather, Professor's House

6. Cather, Professor's House
Blue Mesa/Mesa Verde
The significance of the frontier in American history
Exterior movement
Interior movement
Site of national autonomy and of
Individual identity formation
The discovery of the Cliff City
11/12/2018
Cather, Professor's House

7. Love, Betrayal and Restoration to Life
“You’ve gone and sold your country’s secrets, like Dreyfus” p. 219
“I went to sleep that night hoping I would never waken” p. 224
“He had let something go . . .” p. 258
11/12/2018
Cather, Professor's House