Whose Antonia. Self-deconstruction Of Jim Burden’s Narrative In My Antonia

Many have considered My Antonia an autobiography for Willa Cather because the narrator Jim Burden shares much of Cather’s background. Feminist critics who are concerned with women’s role and position in social and gender hierarchy have noticed that Jim unconsciously adopts a superior attitude towards Antonia despite his apparent out-spoken fondness for her. They agree that women’s voices are suppressed and relegated through men’s speech since Jim Burden the man claims rightful authorship of Antonia’s story. According to these feminists, Jim is given the position of the subject, the controller and the dominator while Antonia is the marginalized other, the object and recipient of men’s love, affections and sympathy. Therefore, they accuse Cather of being a secret chauvinistic writer conspiring with patriarchal culture in oppressing women’s voice and perpetuating men’s speech. However, such an assumption blurs the boundary between literature and life, confounding the narrator with the author. The problem with the feminists is that they only see one Antonia, which is Jim’s Antonia, and identify Jim’s Antonia with Cather’s Antonia. My paper counteracts the feminist’ accusation of Cather. I will first elucidate how Cather has distanced herself effectively from her narrator and his accounts and standpoints. Then I will argue that Jim’s account of Antonia is subjective and shaped by imagination and literature. By writing of a man writing about a woman, Cather discloses how men have mythologized women to their own needs and desires. Other than exposing the problems of Jim’s narrative, Cather also provides alternative narratives against Jim’s narrative, including the widow Stevens’ narrative and more importantly Antonia’s own story. Antonia’s story contradicts Jim’s narration, threatens his view of himself and challenges his definition of her. Antonia, who begins as a character rendered by Jim, by the end of the novel breaks through myths Jim imposes upon her and emerges powerfully as herself.