Subverting Oppression And Rebuilding Harmony

Willa Cather is the first female writer to depict the stories of American frontier in American literature history,and she is regarded as one of the most prominent novelists of America in the 20^th century.My Antonia is a representative of her pioneering series,initially published in 1918.When Cather was faced with the growing material civilization,she set the Nebraska as a background and described the life of pioneers in American western frontier from the female perspective.The story shows the alienation between nature and human,and the suppression women suffer.By depicting the main female characters,for instan ce,the energetic and strong heroine---Antonia,Cather appeals to human's“returning”to nature and rebuilds the harmonious and equitable relationships between human and nature,men and women.Since its publication,many scholars have studied it from var ious points of view,such as romantic criticism,narrative criticism and feminist criticism.With the development of literary criticism and the deterioration of environmental problems,more and more scholars pay their attention to the ecological analysis of the work.This thesis will also make an analysis of My Antonia and its realistic illumination from the ecofeminist perspective.This thesis tends to make an elaborate analysis of the living states of women and nature in My Antonia.In My Antonia,women and nature are both the oppressed in a male-dominated society.According to ecofeminist theories,women are viewed by men as the subordinate of them and women should be submissive to them.Antonia,the heroine of the novel,is exploited by her elder brother and threatened by Mr.Harling.Lena and Tiny,the representatives of hired girls,are despised by local men.Meanwhile,nature is exploited by human beings.Male pioneers excessively reclaim land and kill badgers.However,where there are oppressions,the re are rebellions.Women,like Antonia,have the awakening awareness of pursuing dependence and freedom.They begin to resist the oppressions over them by male.Due to their constant resistance and endeavors,they obtain the final victory over unfair treat ments as well as achieve their self-value.Human beings encounter the punishment of nature,which is in forms of environmental crisis and a spiritual wasteland owing to their exploitation of and being distant from nature.On the Nebraska prairie,Antonia,together with her husband,leads a happy and harmonious life,which shows Willa Cather's thinking about the relationships between men,women and nature.This thesis exposes the oppressions over women and nature in My Antonia from the perspective of ecofeminism.By close reading and careful analysis,the purpose of this thesis is to dismantle patriarchal oppressions and rebuild a new world where men,women and everything and nature coexist equally and harmoniously.