Literature in Motion: Translating Multilingualism Across the Americas by Ellen Jones (review)

Abstract

fiction must have been a result of her having needed “a break from the bleakness of her overcontemplated experienced reality” (163) of the mid-1920s. While readers new to Cather and Cather scholarship may find few problems here, others will be baffled by several areas of Powell’s analysis. In spite of its shortcomings, anyone writing about Cather and opera in the future will want to consult this volume. Cather and Opera is accessible both to readers new to Cather and to those who want to know more about opera in Cather’s fiction. Helpfully for future researchers, Powell includes two appendices, the first listing operas by composer and title, and the second listing Cather’s relevant works and the operas referenced in each. His work on the opera scene of Cather’s youth is lively, helping readers “understand the extent to which classical music would have permeated the frontier world” (8). He also reminds us, sometime eloquently, of the centrality of opera to Cather, making an excellent case that Cather’s “early introduction to opera helped give her a sense of artistic possibility and the aspiration to pursue it” (167). Perhaps even more importantly, Powell emphasizes the importance of the arts in Cather’s work, and in all our lives. Cather went to university to study medicine, he notes, but she quickly realized “that art was every bit as essential to human survival” (42).