University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository English Language and Literature ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2-1-2012 The Other Vanishing American: Disappearing Farmers in American Literature, 1887-1939. Carolyn Kuchera Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds Recommended Citation Kuchera, Carolyn. "The Other Vanishing American: Disappearing Farmers in American Literature, 1887-1939.." (2012). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds/14 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Language and Literature ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. i Carolyn Kuchera Candidate English Language & Literature Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Dr. Jesse Alemán (co-chair) Dr. Gary Scharnhorst (co-chair) Dr. Gary Harrison Dr. Peter Carafiol (Portland State University) ii THE OTHER VANISHING AMERICAN: THE DISAPPEARING FARMER IN AMERICAN LITERATURE, 1887-1939 BY CAROLYN KUCHERA B.A., English, Minnesota State University Moorhead, 2001 M.A., Literature, Portland State University, 2006 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ENGLISH The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico December 2011 iii THE OTHER VANISHING AMERICAN: THE DISAPPEARING FARMER IN AMERICAN LITERATURE, 1887-1939 by Carolyn Kuchera B.A., English, Minnesota State University Moorhead, 2001 M.A., Literature, Portland State University, 2006 Ph.D, English, University of New Mexico, 2011 ABSTRACT Beginning in the late nineteenth century, literary depictions of farmers borrow from the established trope of the “Vanishing American” Indian to portray farmers as disappearing before the forces of modern civilization.