The Androgynous Reading Of My Antonia And O Pioneers!

Willa Cather’s reputation largely rests on her depiction of the western borderland and eulogization of the pioneer spirit in her works. She is regarded as one of the foremost local writers of America in the1920s. My Antonia and O Pioneers! are two representatives of her Nebraska pioneering novels, and they describe how the heroines gain their success in the waste lands, and how they achieve their self-realization. Since they were published, these two novels have been discussed from different perspectives. However, few critics have done it from the perspective of androgyny. This thesis aims to make an androgynous analysis on the heroines, Alexandra and Antonia, and dig out the androgynous features demonstrated in the female pioneers.This thesis consists of three parts, the introduction, the main body and the conclusion.The introduction expounds the researches on these two novels both at home and abroad and the significance of what is discussed in the thesis.The second part includes three chapters. Chapter One gives a brief introduction to the androgyny in three aspects. Firstly, it analyzes androgyny from different fields. Secondly, it presents Virginia Woolf’s notion of androgyny and its essence. Thirdly, it probes into the reasons of Willa Cather’s pursuit of androgyny. Chapter Two analyzes the masculinity of the two female characters, their pursuit of independence, the female discourse power, the performance of cross-dressing and subversion of the conventional female roles in patriarchal society. Chapter Three explores the femininity of the Alexandra and Antonia, including being earth mother and the feminist consciousness. Chapter Four discusses the harmony brought by androgynous quality. The harmonious relationship between man and woman, man and nature are eventually established.The conclusion reiterates the view put forwarded in the thesis and opens up new prospects for the development of androgyny. The thesis holds that in My Antonia and O Pioneers!, Cather intends to deconstruct the androcentrism, and construct the harmonious androgynous ideology and the harmony between men and women.