Willa Cather's Efforts In Eliciting Readers' Response

All through her life, Willa Cather (1873-1947) had been concerned with the response of her readers. She insisted that whether a writer is successful or not depends on whether his or her works can arouse the strong resonance from the reader. In order to achieve this artistic end, Cather had been working with her writing principle and techniques all through her writing career. In order to illustrate this point, we will look closely at three of her works: A Lost Lady (1923), The Professor's House (1925) and My Mortal Enemy (1926). These three books, which come out at the midpoint of Cather's writing career, provide ample illustration of the techniques that Cather experimented and perfected and finally enable her to stay in people's mind.This thesis focuses on the writing principle Cather set out in"The Novel Démeublé"and the techniques she creatively used in these three works. It is divided into three chapters. Chapter One is about Cather's writing principle illustrated in"The Novel Démeublé"and its typical embodiment in the novella My Mortal Enemy; Chapter Two is about her creative use of point of view in the three works; Chapter Three is about her use of contrast in A Lost Lady and The Professor's House. By exploring deep into her writing principle and techniques, this thesis tries to dig out why Cather's works are so powerful in eliciting the reader strong feeling and response.