In the good old days, the state that is Nebraska was identified as part of the Great American Desert. In many ways, in climate and terrain, it still bears a resemblance to a desert. As a frontier or a land of pioneers, it deserves recognition. Invisibility may be one of the greatest challenges women face. One of the great flaws in the writing of…

This paper examines the negative stereotypes so long foisted on witty women and the move of contemporary witty women writers into a comic vision beyond the imposed connection of female wit to sly cleverness and witchcraft. To illustrate how the woman writer had to cope with a prejudice against and a fear of her wit, the paper considers three…

Anzia Yezierska and Agnes Smedley grew up in the United States in poverty-stricken, working-class families. Both women became famous authors and participants in social movements of the early decades of the 20th century. Yezierska's "Bread Givers" and Smedley's "Daughter of Earth", published in the 1920s, were fictionalized…