Archived Announcement:

9th International Cather Seminar
"Cather as Cultural Icon"
May 28 - June 2, 2003
Bread Loaf Campus, Middlebury College
Ripton, Vermont

This year's seminar will focus on questions of Cather as a cultural icon. The focus acknowledges that Cather has been elevated from marginal to canonical status, and with this "elevation" has come an outpouring of work related to her—biographies, criticism, personal essays, adaptations to film, theatre, opera and radio. This outpouring invites us to engage in conversations about art and culture. How is a writer inscribed into a culture? What are the implications of celebrity or iconic status? As a writer fiercely protective of the privacy necessary to work, Cather provides a forum to consider what we expect of art and artists today. Ethical considerations of integrity and authenticity enter into the conversation: what are the responsibilities of readers, teachers, scholars, performers, and film makers to the work and its creator?

Willa Cather taught at Bread Loaf in July of 1922. This is a song that was performed by her students:

O Miss Cather, when we gather
For your talks so wise and clear
Now you're going we're all hoping
You'll come back another year.

Schedule:

PDF format —125k ; best for printing (Adobe Acrobat Reader required)
HTML format

Brochure, including registration form—669k (Adobe Acrobat Reader required)
Registration form only—35k (Adobe Acrobat Reader required)
Scholarship application—75k (Adobe Acrobat Reader required)
Self-Guided Tours of the Northeast

Note: Registration and scholarship materials are made available for printing only; they cannot be completed and submitted on-line.