Willa Cather's Subversive Ideas In My Antonia

Willa Cather was an American novelist who was noted for her novels about immigrants struggling to make a living in the Midwest during the late 1800s. Various critics have placed Cather among feminist writers, antifeminist writers, and even lesbian writers. Altogether, she has published 12 novels, the most popular of which include My Antonia (1918), O Pioneers! (1913), The Song of the Lark (1915), and Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927). In her works Cather created impressive female characters, who had the courage and vision to face all obstacles in their difficult lives.My Antonia, written in 1918, two years before women got the right to vote, surely contains many elements of subversion. The aim of this thesis is to investigate how Cather's intention of subverting patriarchy is encoded in this novel. As a result, I have chosen two typical aspects--patriarchal gender roles and its marital relations--to illustrate my purpose.Part one of this thesis focuses on patriarchal gender roles. In patriarchal society, gender roles were strictly defined, men were supposed to be active, dominating, adventurous, rational and creative, while women should be passive, submissive, timid, sentimental and conventional. Yet we find both male and female characters described in the novel are at odds with these clear-cut gender roles. Here in this thesis, the first section of Part one examines three male characters, Jim Burden, Marek Shimerda, and Mr. Shimerda. As men, they should be dominant and strong, yet none of them fulfills their roles. Nominally male, Jim Burden behaves in ways that mark him as female. With his webbed fingers and feet, inability to speak and distorted appearance, Marek Shimerda also shows many female characteristics. Mr. Shimerda, being sentimental and lacking the dominant roles in his family, is the typical example of female at that time. On the contrary, three female characters analyzed in the second section of Part one show the opposite characteristics. Antonia, unlike traditional women, is physically strong and morally sound. Lena has achieved success in the male dominated business world and lived an independent life. Frances Harling, being good at both male duties and female work, is one of the many examples of what a"manly"woman can be. By analyzing these six characters in the text, I argue that Cather overthrows clear-cut gender...