The Ghost in the Machine: The multicultural complex in Willa Cather's fiction

Some scholars comment on Willa Cather's close association with immigrants from Europe, and even her contact with the Indian civilization, but scarcely notice the influence of the black people on her. In fact such an influence exists in her works as a hypotext, investing its structural mode with an Afro-American cultural ethos characteristic of its irregular rhythm, a feature which is vastly different from the aesthetic principle of the mainstream culture. An investigation of the contribution that Black culture has made to American literature or, in Toni Morrison's words, searching for "the ghost in the machine," enables us to gain an insight into the multicultural complex in Cather's works. From North and East European immigrants' native tongues and Indian architecture to Black music, diverse non-WASP cultures exerted their subtle influence on Cather, bringing forth the multicultural features in her works.