Seeking a felicitous space: The dialectics of women and frontier space in 'Giants in the Earth', 'Little House on the Prairie', and 'My Antonia'

D. H. Lawrence believed that even to the frontiersman and immigrant in America, "the very landscape, in its very beauty," was "a bit devilish and grinning, opposed to us" (50). Historically, then, the open space of the American landscape---including that of the frontier---has been intimidating even to men. If the landscape is naturally adverse to men, scholars have asked, how much harsher might this landscape seem to women? Both historians and novelists acknowledge that women experienced a rough time on the American frontier in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. What few scholars will agree on, however, is the reason for women's struggles on the frontier. By focusing on O. E. Rolvaag's Giants in the Earth, Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie, and Willa Cather's My Antonia, this dissertation shows how the primary female characters in these novels react to space and how space provides or prevents tranquility and growth for each of them. In so doing, I also show how these texts, each of which could be termed feminist, reveal feminine spatiality and gender struggles in the context of American culture and literary theory.;In this dissertation I reveal the spatial culture of the pioneer woman as presented through three distinct characters: Beret in Giants in the Earth, Laura in Little House on the Prairie, and Antonia in My Antonia. In developing my analysis, I build on the criticism of other scholars. A progression of women's voices---fictional and historical---indicate how women have modified their gender roles to accommodate their environment, thereby broadening their potential felicitous space. Beret's character reveals the plight some migrant women faced while traveling to the pioneer land and the infelicitous space they discovered in the open land. Laura Ingalls's story shows the social and gender development of some women and girls as they adapted to the new environment, particularly as young girls like Laura fulfill the role of "tomboy" on the open prairie as they progress to womanhood. Finally, Antonia serves as a representative American woman who successfully crosses gender borders and finds a felicitous space on the open prairie.