Religion and Spirituality in Willa Cather’s Journalism

Abstract

This essay explores representations of religion and spirituality in selected journalism by Willa Cather written prior to 1900. Cather is best known for her fiction; however, her oeuvre also encompasses a considerable body of journalism written over a long period of time for a variety of newspapers and journals. Cather’s journalism was part of a wider effort by women writers and professionals to gain a foothold in American pub-lic life and letters at a time of considerable upheaval within American professions and literary culture. Cather’s journalism on issues of religion and spirituality contributed in significant ways to debates surrounding the role of religion in late-nineteenth-century American society. Cather’s journalism on gender, art and aesthetics, diversity, and change was in-formed ethically and aesthetically by religious and spiritual contexts, even when her own personal relationship to matters of faith was in flux. Cather’s journalism was important in the evolution of American writing on religion and spirituality, especially in the context of late-nineteenth-century American women’s writing on religion.