| Willa Cather (1873 - 1947) is a famous American female writer in the 19th century. People become increasingly aware of the value and the importance of Cather's works since the late 20th century. More and more critics transfer their attention to her works in the past several decades.Willa Cather's pioneer novels were very famous among her early writings. Among them, Myántonia is more special and interesting. The appearance of this novel arouses a lot of criticisms, which deal with different aspects of this novel, such as her unique language and narrative techniques. There have also been criticisms trying to examine the novel in the light of feminism and come to significant conclusions. On the basis of their research, the author of this dissertation will try her best to provide a careful and detailed study of this novel in the light of feminism, trying to exhume the novel more deeply.This dissertation consists of five parts.Chapter One serves as an introduction to the present thesis. It concentrates on the life and works of Willa Cather as well as the aim of this study. As one of the famous American writers in the 20th century, Cather creates many works; however, what bring her great fame are her prairie novels—O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, and Myántonia, in which her feminist thought is also embodied. Feminism is one of the most feasible critical approaches to Cather's works because she pays much attention to female's existence. Those three pioneer novels share similarities in many aspects, especially in the characterization of the heroines. However, both in the way of depicting the protagonist and in imaging the sequel of the heroine, Myántonia stands out higher than the other two. Based on the analysis of the growing process and sequel of the heroine, this paper tries to make a further study on this novel.Chapter Two is aimed at a general illustration of background knowledge including an introduction of the feminist theory which will be adopted in analyzing the novel in... |
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