The Subversion Of Gender Roles In Willa Cather’s O,Pioneers！ And My Antonia

Willa Cather was the first female writer in American literary history who devotedherself to the study of American pioneer movement. With her fresh and non-artificialstyle of writing, she did her best to portray the typical characters in pioneer days,standing uniquely in modern American literature. Throughout her life, she published atotal of twelve novels, two volumes of short stories, many essays and poems.Meanwhile, she received both national and state honors, including the Pulitzer Price,U.S. Women’s Award, and Honorary Doctorate Degrees from both Princeton Universityand Yale. Willa Cather put great emphasis on the description of personality beauty ofearly female pioneers, and from that special historical period of the United States, sheexplored the spiritual beauty that she had always longed for. Among her works,“Nebraska novels” have undoubtedly established her unshakable position in literaryhistory, with O, Pioneers! and My Antonia being the most famous masterpieces, andthese two novels have great research value.Willa Cather’s works have always had a wide range of readers, and have arisen theinterests of many critics. Over the years, critics at home and abroad have made fruitfulresearch on Willa Cather and her works. Their research ideas diverse from the literary,aesthetic，historical, cultural point of view, to the relationship between men and nature,ethnical amalgamation, women, and even the author’s sexual orientation point of view.Among them, the most well-known studies on Willa Cather’s works are based onFeminist Perspective which has arisen in the1960s. In Willa Cather’s novels, the rolesand statuses of male and female characters are usually different from what peoplealready have in mind, which can be particularly seen from O, Pioneers! and My Antonia.This thesis mainly adopts the criticism methods of feminist, especially feminist genderperspective, to analyze the different roles and statuses between male and femalecharacters in these two novels, in the purpose of making a general study about thereversal of gender roles in Cather’s novels. At the same time, it reveals Cather’s deepconcern about the plight of women and the tireless efforts she had made to lift it as afemale writer.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one is an introduction to WillaCather’s life and her literary achievements, the brief contents of O, Pioneers! and MyAntonia, the literature reviews of Cather’s works at home and abroad, and the feasibility and significance of this study.Chapter Two is the analysis of theoretical perspective. This thesis mainly adoptsthe criticism methods of feminism, especially the feminist gender perspective. Firstly,the writer introduces the origin, the basic spirits and then the main concepts of gendertheory. Then through the gender culture Willa Cather described in her novels whichcompletely subverts the gender conventions, the writer of this thesis makes furtherintroduction of gender role and gender identity, and meanwhile gives Willa Cather’spoint of view about gender. This chapter provides a general framework for thefollowing analysis.The central section, including Chapter Three and Chapter Four, analyzes anumber of selected texts and typical characters of the two novels from the perspectiveof feminism.Chapter Three is the analysis of how the female characters in My Antonia and O,Pioneers! manage to break the fetter of traditional gender culture and realize theirvalues. Cather had given the female characters the masculine qualities through the waythey dress, their names, their behavior and personalities. These female characters nolonger take orders from men, but take control of their own destinies. They are bold,hard-working, independent women who are stronger than men both physically andmentally. They are embodiment of Willa Cather’s feminist ideas, especially herrethinking about women’s status in a patriarchy society.Chapter four is the analysis of male characters in these two novels, explaining howthose feminine male characters differ from the men who would do everything they canto defend the patriarchy culture in reality. In a time when the patriarchy culture seems tobe in absolute control, the male characters only act as foils to the female characters inCather’s novels. They are timid and untenable.Chapter Five is the conclusion of this thesis. We can get the followingconclusions from the major contents of the thesis: The male characters in WillaCather’s early novels are usually weak and accessorial, while the female characters areindependent, brave and eager to realize their self-worth. This reversal of gender rolesbreaks the traditional concept of the relationship between men and women in thepaternity culture. It is the detailed manifestation of feminist theory; in order to realizewomen’s independent and freedom, spiritual independence is the most crucial element.