An Ecofeminist Study Of Willa Cather's Early Works Oh, Pioneers! And My (?)ntonia

As a combination of the feminist and ecological movements, ecofeminism arouses the social consciousness of the ecological and feminist issues by reestablishing the significant presence of women and nature in the literary texts. It topples the castle of the androcentrism and anthropocentrism by questioning the biased stereotypes of the other, i.e., the female and the once marginalized existence of nature in the world of literature so as to make the world a better place to live in.Willa Cather (1873-1947) has completed 12 long novels in her life time, and establishes her fame in the American literary canon of the early 20th century alongside Earnest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald. Her works, however, stand out for their unique flavors which are pure, natural, and tranquil. Her early works mostly deal with the life of the pioneers on the Nebraska prairies, among which O, Pioneers! and Myántonia have drawn the attention of the critics home and abroad. Many specialists have studied Cather's works from different lens and perspectives by interpreting them as mythical, romantic, feministic and ecological texts, etc. However, these criticisms have failed to reveal the unprecedented feministic ecological awareness of Cather. Thus, the thesis mainly analyzes these two early works from the lens of ecofeminism to reveal Cather's love of the land and her eulogy of the women.Apart from the introduction and conclusion, the first chapter of the thesis gives an account of the definition and significance of ecofeminism in the literary world of Willa Cather. With this theoretical basis, the second chapter then discovers the theme of the convergence of women and nature in O'Pioneers!. Chapter three mainly analyzes the author's depiction ofántonia as an independent woman and the harmonious relationship between the female and the land in the ecological matrix—nature.