Judith Fetterley on A Farewell to Arms

The legendary feminist critic Judith Fetterley joins us to discuss her brilliant and incendiary work on A Farewell to Arms, a piece from 1978 that has endured as one of the definitive feminist critiques of Hemingway. 

Prof. Fetterley discusses protagonist Frederic Henry’s self-pity and self-absorption, Catherine’s obsequiousness, and Hemingway’s design of the novel that leads Fetterley to conclude that Catherine “dies because she is a woman.”  

We go on to discuss Hemingway’s style, the theme of childbirth in Hemingway’s work, and how Fetterley’s feminist views in the 1970s apply to today’s reader.  Join us for this special episode!