From Masculine Self To Ecological Self

O, Pioneers! and My Antonia are the two most famous novels by American woman writer Willa Cather. For one century, these two novels have been discussed from different perspectives. Some critics focus their attention on the pioneering spirit and the pattern of romanticism in the works. Some focus on the question whether Cather is a feminist or not. In Recent years with the popularity of cultural criticism, more and more attention has been paid to the themes of literary nationalism and cultural transmission. Alongside these themes, an updated hot topic of Cather study is what might be called 'ecopoetic': the relationship between (female) self and landscape. This thesis is an ecofeminist analysis of the relationship between women and nature mainly through analyzing Cather's heroines' experience with land. Ecofeminism holds that women and nature play the same role in androcentric ideology. They both serve as the debased "other" in opposition to the masculine "Self. The association between women and nature is "female otherness". One's attitude towards this association reflects one's ideology. Alexandra's character development bears stamp to Willa Cather's own development in artistic pursuit. Viewing the two novels as a whole, this thesis draws a conclusion that more than half a century ago Willa Cather adumbrated an ecofeminist view about nature and civilization that go beyond a merely instrumental notion of pioneering.