The Aesthetic Modernity Of Willa Cather's "Crisis Novels"

Willa Cather(1873-1947),a famous American woman writer in the twentieth century,was viewed as "the voice of a defender for the spiritual beauty in a constantly materialized civilization" for her early creation of pioneer literature.In the middle stage,Cather's creation of "crisis novels",represented by A Lost Lady,The Professor's House and My Mortal Enemy,showed the combination of her profound reflection and criticism on modern materialized civilization and humanities ideal of pursuing the spiritual beauty of pioneers,which contributed to the main body of aesthetic modernity in her works.Cather intentionally made the vast western prairie,where she grew up and served as the symbol of human spiritual home,contrast with the destruction of traditional civilization and the erosion of human spirit by modern society.By doing so,Cather expressed her deep concerns for human existence and spiritual loss.Meanwhile,with her in-depth social insight and exquisite style of writing,Cather successfully gave a disclosure of the existence and spiritual crisis faced by the American society in the 1920s.A study of aesthetic modernity in Cather's works will help us get easy access to Cather's creation ideas as well as better understand and grasp the meaning of ongoing modernity.From the perspective of aesthetic modernity,this paper attempts to analyze Cather's "crisis novels" by close reading of three mainly representative novels:A Lost Lady,The Professor's House and My Mortal Enemy.This article displays the dual predicaments of women's existence and spirit under the background of the times and the modern aggression in the fall of tradition.Besides,it implies the spiritual wandering of intellectuals in the social alienation,the materialization of pure perceptual life and the modern living conditions of three generations.At the same time,this paper shows Cather's humanistic concern of seeking the spiritual way and reveals her acute insight of American society crisis at that time and her deep introspection on Modernity.