In this episode, the question of why we should read American literature today is asked and answered by Sarah Wages. She will use different novels to prove her point, but specifically talking about Willa Cather’s My Ántonia. She will then introduce the Bechdel Test to American Literature, seeing what does and does not pass the test.

Works Cited
Agarwal, A. “Key Female Characters in Film Have More to Talk about besides Men ...”

Aclanthropy, 2015, https://aclanthology.org/N15-1084.pdf.

Appel, Markus, and Timo Gnambs. “Women in Fiction: Bechdel-Wallace Test Results for the Highest-Grossing Movies of the Last Four Decades.” Psychology of Popular Media, Sept. 2022. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000436.supp (Supplemental).

Bender, Clare. “Gender Stereotyping in Little Women: ‘Let Us Be Elegant or Die!’” Gender Stereotyping in Little Women: “Let Us Be Elegant or Die!,” 2017, https://research.monm.edu/mjur/files/2019/02/MJUR-i08-2017-8-Bender.pdf.

Bloom, Harold. “Willa Cather's My Ántonia.” Google Books, Google, 2008, https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=dN8omAicUwoC&oi=fnd&pg=PA117&dq=My%2BAntonia%2Bhistory&ots=daMMKSX5s3&sig=EWLzhgd8H_wbPqwpGMnuT2YFBkk#v=onepage&q=My%20Antonia%20history&f=false.

Bohlke, L. “Willa Cather in Person.” Google Books, Google, 1986, https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=fumUk2RPFtAC&oi=fnd&pg=PR13&dq=Willa%2BCather&ots=qnwwYNhTzz&sig=0fTmHSxlZVSwwwum_KW42P7rYx4#v=onepage&q&f=false.

Cather, Willa. My Ántonia. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1918. Davis, Jordan. “Gender-Based Behavior in A Streetcar Named Desire.” Scholarworks, 1994, https://scholarworks.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5552&context=etd. Giles, James R. , Blair, Walter and Dickstein, Morris. "American literature". Encyclopedia

Britannica, 27 Jan. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/art/American-literature.

Nebraska, History. “Timeline Tuesday: Drought and Depression in 1890s Nebraska.” History Nebraska, 30 Oct. 2022, https://history.nebraska.gov/timeline-tuesday-drought-and-depression-in-1890s-nebraska/

Why American Literature Today? The Bechdel/Peirce Test 14:56 Share

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Why American Literature Today? The Bechdel/Peirce Test