A Comparative Study Of The Woman Question In The Mill On The Floss And My Antonia

The Woman Question was one of the major cultural issues in the Victorian England (1832-1901) and in the United States over the first half of the 20^th century. George Eliot and Willa Cather were two stellar novelists heralding a new era for woman writing in Anglo-American literature history.As female writers, they showed great solicitude for women's fate and took the Woman Question as their point of departure for writing career. In their most autobiographical novels The Mill on the Floss and My Antonia, Eliot and Cather were both endeavoring to speak out for the amelioration of the condition of women and trying to combat some of the ingrained prejudices against them, during a time in their own countries when traditional ideas about women were being challenged and some legal reforms were being enacted concerning the status of women.This thesis is composed of six parts. The first part is an introduction to a sketch of the Woman Question in history and the literary achievements of Eliot and Cather in woman literature. The second part concisely deals with the methodology in perspective of feminist literary criticism and a critical survey of the two writers' works.The third part focuses on the Woman Question in historical and cultural reality of Eliot's and Cather's life time. This part is further divided into two sections: Women's Living State in Victorian England, Women's Living State in the Transitional Age of Early Twentieth Century of America. The fourth part elaborates on a comparison of the Woman Question in the two novels. It revolves around the themes such as woman's self and society, woman and education, vocation and economy, love and marriage. By making a detailed comparison and analysis of Eliot and Cather's astute brood over the Woman Question, the author intends to explore the transcendence and limitations of them and its enlightenment upon reality.The fifth part discusses women writers and their writing about female experience.It consists of three parts: Female Experience and Woman Writing, Consonance and Dissonance between the Characters and Writers, and Their Contribution to Women's Literature. There is an undeniable fact that woman has long been in a muted status and become aphasic in overwhelming patriarchal master discourse. Thus woman writing implies the female subversive force to overturn patriarchal cultural reign. In this sense Eliot and Cather who are hailed as the great influential novelists pave the way for the women coming after them.The conclusion makes a comparison of the causes of the similarities and differences of Eliot and Cather over the Woman Question. It follows that all in all the Woman Question is not the sole question of woman since the construction of a harmonious society requires the participation of both genders.