On The Image Of Death In Willa Cather's Pioneering Novels

This thesis is aimed at the image of death in the pioneering novels written by Willa Cather who is an American woman writer at the turn of the 19th and the 20th century, especially in her leading novels such as my Antonia. With focus on the death image, the author tries to analyze the frame and content of the text. From the viewpoint of philosophy, the author researches into the philosophical significance of the death image, and makes a point of the position of Willa Cather抯 pioneering novels in the history of American literature. The whole thesis is mainly composed of five chapters. Chapter 1: the pioneering and the death, defining the pioneering novels and analyzing the relation between the pioneering and the death. Chapter2: the three types of the death: suicide, homicide, and natural death. Chapter3: the function of death image, discussing it from the viewpoint of narrative, plot, symbol and metaphor. Chapter4: the philosophical meditation on death, expatiating on the connection and signification of death and existence death and being, death and resurrection. Chapter5: Cather and her pioneering novel, Showing the inherent life of Cather and the course of her novels creation, and through a comparison of death image in length and breadth ,pointing out the position of Cather抯 pioneering novels in the history of American literature...