Willa Cather’s ’Paul’s Case’

Ambrose, Jamie. Willa Cather: Writing at the frontier. Berg Publishers, 1988. “Writing at the Frontier” is a biographical book about the works of Willa Cather. This is a 173 page book that contains essays that Cather published at seventeen years as well as short stories and poetry that she wrote by eighteen and her general writing journey. It also describes the achievements of Willa Cather and the life of the writer till her death. It is also noteworthy that this book highlights the impacts of Cather’s works in the literary world and has a collection of various notable quotes by the writer. These aspects of Cather’s works are used essentially to elaborate the interplay between Cather’s personal life and the impact of art as well. Besides, it contains reviews on her prizewinning novels. This is an essential resource that would help in understanding the writer of the main subject of this research from a personal angle. It is a resource that would not only help in understanding the backdrop of her style, themes, and motifs, but also help in comparing her various works and the motifs contained in them. As Nardin’s article help in understanding the influence of the times on the style of the writer, this article would help in understanding the personal events that affect the entire concept of the book as well as her other works.

Herring, Terrell Scott. ”Willa Cather’s Lost Boy:“Paul’s Case”and Bohemian Tramping.“Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory 60.2 (2004): 87-116.

In this article, the author attempts to explain several other factors that have an effect on the writing style and the choice of Willa Cather in his main protagonist. The author attempts to question the position of the boy child in the works of Willa Cather and even asserts that the writer seemed to have a particular interest in boys, though not sexually. Likewise, he asserts that typologies on male adolescents was a major causal factor in the particular interest in adolescent in boys and thus affected the writer’s style and choices. This is an article that would help in understanding the underlying concepts that affect the writing style of Cather including the period in which it was written. Like Nardin’s article (that would also be discussed in this annotation), this article is essential in understanding the various ways in which the author puts together the events of the time to help in understanding the character more.

Ku, Chung-Hao. ”A Boy Under the Ban of Suspension“: Renouncing Maturity in Willa Cather’s”Paul’s Case.“MFS Modern Fiction Studies 61.1 (2015): 69-89.

Chung-Hao Ku’s ”A Boy under the Ban of Suspension: Renouncing Maturity in Willa Cather’s Paul’s Case” is an article that studies the queer nature of Paul’s behavior in adolescence at intersection of sexuality, time, and narrative. Written on March 2015 in the MFS Modern Fiction Studies this article tries to define the aspect of sexuality from the subject’s perspective. In the article, Ku attempts to understand the struggles of Paul’s protogay boyhood and the fantasies he has as a boy as well as what his actions (especially the suicide) mean to his views of adolescence. This is an article that is essential in understanding the sexuality of the character from his perspective. Like Rubin’s article, it is obvious that the author also dwells on the assumption that the character is gay based on the cues given by Willa Cather and not on the extrinsic mention of sexuality in the story.

Nardin, Jane. ”Homosexual Identities in Willa Cather’s ‘Paul’s Case’.“Literature & History 17.2 (2008): 31-46.

In ”Homosexual Identities in Willa Cather’s Paul’s Case” Jane Nardin looks at the various influences on Cather’s writing and the presentation of the protagonist. In the article Nardin asserts that the writer’s style of not mentioning homosexuality yet presenting a homosexual gay is influenced by the developments in sexology. In her article, Nardin asserts that the author is able to present the character through elaborate physical descriptions and as such the story not only brings about the aspect of gayism but also brings into the forefront the rise of the middle class in the late nineteenth century. This is a source that would be essential in picking up the cues pointing at the main character’s homosexuality. Besides, it will help in understanding the context of the time when the story was written and the aspects that influenced the author’s style of writing. Nardin’s article may be compared to Jamie Ambrose’s ”Writing at the Frontier’ that also helps the reader to understand the author in a much deeper perspective.

Rubin, Larry. ”The Homosexual Motif in Willa Cather’s“Paul’s Case”.“Studies in Short Fiction 12.2 (1975): 127.

Larry Rubin’s essay ”The Homosexual Motif in Willa Cather’s ‘Paul’s Case’” is an essay that highlight’s the themes of homosexuality in Willa Cather’s ”Paul’s Case.” Written in 1975, the article argues that although this is not a concept that is explicitly raised in the book, the main character may as well be gay. In his article, Rubin suggests that the motif of homosexuality acts as a metaphorical backdrop for several other concerns. This is an article that helps the reader to understand the various ways that the author of ”Paul’s Case” intrinsically points out that Paul is actually a closeted homosexual and that his different traits are a result of his sexuality. This article can be compared to Chung-Hao Ku’s ”A Boy under the Ban of Suspension: Renouncing Maturity” who also believes that Paul is only different because of his sexuality and that his character explain an underlying issue.