Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This essay analyzes how Willa Cather's 1928 story “Neighbour Rosicky” depicts issues of masculinity, work, and American identity through the corporeality of Anton Rosicky. Because his failing health and formerly strong body are so linked to the work he does, Rosicky's body becomes more than simply a tool for farming. This topic considers the cultural and historical significance of how these subthemes correspond to the larger theme of working men in America. Rosicky represents a uniquely American conflict between production from physical work for private or familial consumption and such production that is intended primarily to generate income. In this work, the two issues are presented as entangled as Rosicky provides food for his family but also spends the income from the sale of what is left over on nonnecessities. Rosicky's work, which both produces foodstuffs for his family and provides income for other goods, and the body performing that work depict a crucial theme for working men in America after the turn of the century.

Keywords

Willa Cather Neighbour Rosicky corporeality masculinity literature male bodies working men consumption labor capitalism farming

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Arnold

(1984). Willa Cather's short fiction. Athens: Ohio University Press.

Bordo

(1999). The male body: A new look at men in public and private. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Caesar

(1999). Nationality, gender, and body in “Neighbor Rosicky” and “Old Mrs. Harris.” The North Dakota Quarterly, 66, 70–78.

Carden

M.P.

(1999). Creative fertility and the national romance in Willa Cather's O Pioneers! and My Antonia. Modern Fiction Studies, 45, 275–302.

Cather

(1932). Neighbour Rosicky. Obscure Destinies. New York: Knopf.

Fried

(1987). Realism, writing, disfiguration on Thomas Eakins and Stephen Crane. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Justad

M.J.

(1996). A transvaluation of phallic masculinity: Writing with and through the male body. The Journal of Men's Studies, 4, 355–374.

Kimmel

M.S.

(1994). Consuming manhood: The feminization of American culture and the recreation of the male body, 1832–1920. In Goldstein

(Ed.), The male body. Features, destinies, exposures (pp. 12–41). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Kimmel

M.S.

(1996). Manhood in America. A cultural history. New York: The Free Press.

10.

Lindemann

(1998). Fear of a queer prairie: Figure of the body and/as the nation in Willa Cather's early fiction. Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation, 42, 30–35.

11.

Lingus

(1994). Foreign bodies. New York: Routledge.

12.

O'Brien

(1987). Willa Cather: The emerging voice. New York: Ballantine.

13.

Piacentino

(1979). The agrarian mode in Cather's “Neighbour Rosicky.” Markham Review, 8, 52–54.

14.

Schubnell

(1991). The farmer as cultural model: Neighbor Rosicky's American dream. Nebraska English Journal, 37, 41–50.

15.

Sergeant

E.S.

(1992). Willa Cather: A memoir. Columbus: Ohio University Press.

16.

Shannon

(2004). ReFashioning men: Fashion, masculinity, and the cultivation of the male consumer in Britain, 1860–1914. Victorian Studies, 46(4).

17.

Thomas

(1996). Male matters. Masculinity, anxiety, and the male body on the line. Urbana: University Illinois Press.

18.

Vardamis

(1993). Two hands: Colette's “The hand” and Cather's “Neighbour Rosicky.” Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial Newsletter, 37, 35–36.

19.

Veblen

(1899) Theory of the leisure class. New York: MacMillan.

20.

Wiegman

(1987). Writing the male body: Naked patriarchy and Whitmanian democracy. Literature and Psychology, 33, 16–26.

The Producing Male Body in Willa Cather's “Neighbour Rosicky”

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References