女性移民者的地方感: 維拉．凱瑟在 >和 >二書中的美國西部土地再現

Abstract

Willa Cather (1873-1947) is regarded as a Nebraskan writer in American western literature, whose works mostly picture the immigrants’ life in the age of American westward movement. She is good at capturing the transformation of landscape of Nebraska land and the immigrants’ activities. In particular, two of her representative pioneer novels, O Pioneers！(1913), and My Antonia (1918) depict the close relation between the immigrants and the land. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the connections between the transformation of American West land and the pioneer immigrants’ sense of place in these two novels. By portraying the immigrants’ management of land, I want to find the symbolic and material meanings of land. These two ideas of land influence the immigrants’ sense of place. I employ John Agnew’s three fundamental aspects of place: locale, location, and sense of place as an approach to investigate what the meaning and importance of the female immigrants’ relation to the places. Chapter One of this thesis focuses on the first novel, O Pioneers！, the protagonist, Alexandra, as a successful female pioneer immigrant, devotes her life cultivating the Nebraska land. With the transformation of the land, Alexandra begins to understand the cycle of the nature and the meaning of a place for her. The novel centers on the process of Alexandra’s homemaking in order to build up her sense of place. Chapter Two of this thesis centers on the second novel, My Antonia, The protagonist, Antonia, a Bohemian immigrant, arrives at the Nebraskan prairie with her parents. She faces the challenge to adapt to a strange environment. In order to survive on the wild land, she begins to understand the social relations among immigrants with different ethnic backgrounds. This chapter attempts to illustrate the social relations in different places, like the rural prairie and the town of Black Hawk to in order to indicate how Antonia’s build up her sense of place in this multicultural society. Finally, the concluding chapter discusses the relation of Willa Cather and the American West land. By writing O Pioneers！and My Antonia, Cather represents the American west land by depicting male and female immigrants’ sense of place. Cather colors the Nebraskan prairie with a new page. Significantly, the American west land for Cather not only comprises a basic material success, but an important symbolic meaning of home as well.