Join us as we begin our Spring Liberal Arts Discussion Series

A collaboration with

The University of Chicago Graham School

hosting presentations and discussions of original research

American Exceptionalism in Literature:

The Immigrant Experience through the Eyes of Willa Cather

led by, Clare Pearson

To reserve your spot email info@kibbitznest.org

This discussion will consider Willa Cather’s descriptions of European migrants to North America,

and how they are transformed by life on the frontier: by their experience of the land itself; by the intense blending of different cultures and the challenge that posed to old world cultural norms; by the encounter with indigenous tribal peoples; and by the need to form new attitudes and ways of life to fit the new environment. We will look together at several short passages from Cather’s novels, with attention to the way she presents what is transformatively American and the new freedoms she depicts as arising from that transformation, and discuss these, then consider the idea of American exceptionalism as she presents it vs.what appears in American rhetoric and culture.

Clare Pearson did her graduate study with the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, where she worked in the intersections of ethical philosophy and literature. She has taught at the University of Chicago, Christ College (the honors college of Valparaiso University), in the philosophy department at St Xavier University, and is also an Instructor in Philosophy and Humanities at Oakton College. She currently teaches in the Basic Program of Liberal Education for Adults at the University of Chicago Graham School, where she chaired the program from 2004 to 2009 and won the 2013 Graham School Award for Excellence in Teaching. While chair, she was also instrumental in developing the Asian Classics program, which is returning to the Graham School next year as a two-year alumni sequence as part of the Basic Program. She has published on Martin Heidegger and has given a variety of lectures and talks in Chicago over the last 25 years, including several at Kibbitznest.