The Fulfillment Of Female Identity

The traditional literary history is composed of literary canons that has based upon male texts and experiences while women's works are excluded or termed as worthless. In accordance, female images are always distorted in the traditional literary canons. In such a plight, feminist critics devote to recover the works of some women writers who have been undermined in the male-dominated literary history over a long time. Among those women writers, Willa Cather is a distinguished one.This thesis tries to make a detailed analysis on My Antonia by Willa Cather from the perspective of feminist criticism. In patriarchal society, women are expected to play the roles as the object of men's sexual desire or virtuous housewife, both of which are presented in the novel. Growing up under such influence, Antonia shows her submission to the patriarchal ideas to some degree, which leads to her love tragedy. Rather than become depressed, she overcomes the obstacles and transcends the conventional limitations. With enormous courage and strong will, she finally settles down as a successful pioneer woman. The strong and independent characteristics fostered by the plight turn out to be an indispensable factor of her eventual success. Antonia fulfills her female identity in the double roles as the founder of the fertile land and a prosperous family. Cather revises the mythology of men's superiority by creating a pioneer woman who rebels against the patriarchal authority.