Study On My Antonia From The Perspective Of Ecofeminism

Willa Cather (1873-1947) is regarded as one of the most famous female writers in the19th century. As the leading writer of American pioneering fiction, she is noted for vivid descriptions of hardships encountered by western immigrants, deep insights of complicated human nature and successful creation of distinctive characters. In1918, My Antonia was published. As the final novel of her prairie-trilogy, it has aroused great attention in the critical field. For almost a century, critics have applied diverse critical theories to explore the novel’s literary meanings and social values from different perspectives. These theories range from romanticism, cultural analysis to ecofeminism which is gaining wider attention. However, it should be pointed that when interpreting the novel from the ecofeminist perspective, most domestic scholars are inclined to adopt the oppression-rebellion-harmony pattern and emphasize the oppression of women imposed by men. Nevertheless, they neglect the oppression of women imposed by some women who have been tamed by androcentrism and patriarchy. Based on the above studies and the specific textual analysis, the thesis is devoted to studying the novel and advancing its ecofeminist research by studying oppression imposed by tamed women and presenting its solution.Firstly, the thesis gives a brief introduction of Willa Cather and her work My Antonia, summarizes the critical background and research of My Antonia both in China and abroad, and points out ecocriticism to be the research perspective and theoretical frame. Based on the study on the essential meanings of ecofeminism and its history of development, the thesis presents the reason and significance of such research. In the body part, based on the textual analysis, the thesis mainly explores the intimate relationship between nature and women in terms of their close connections and their oppressed situation, especially the oppression of women by tamed women. It concludes that the application of ecofeminism to the analysis of the novel benefit our understanding of the author’s idea on nature and women, and better our understanding of the novel itself. Through consistent efforts, harmonious relationship between man and nature is achievable.