This is an examination of the extent to which Cather poses an ecofeminist response to the normative Frontier Myth. In an analysis of Cather's 1923 essay, "Nebraska: The End of the First Cycle" and O Pioneers! it argues that Cather revises the typical masculine, individualistic pioneer spirit into a Pioneer Spirit that is rooted in connectivity, collaboration and sustainability.

Thesis (M.A.)--Oregon State University, 2000. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-89). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2006. / Title from title screen (site viewed on Oct. 6, 2006). PDF text: x, 163 p. : music ; 7.52Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3213392. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm, microfiche and paper format.

This thesis explores the evolution of American Western narrative after the 1893 closing of the Western Frontier. Formerly representing a seemingly limitless fuel of symbolic growth, the frontier's closing threatened further national prosperity. Without new Western lands to conquer, narratives about the West began to be romanticized in a new way, selectively omitting non-Anglo narrative elements and presenting a more palatable West in the form of celebratory conquest. Ignoring its imperial roots, this new twentieth-century mythologization of the West became an increasingly ubiquitous narrative of America's honorable origins. Despite its ties to the perpetuation of empire, the pervasiveness of contemporary Western narratives remains largely benign in resonance, resulting in a past that is wholly severed from the present. Using a New Historicist approach, this study pairs literary works with cultural artifacts, tracking the role of Western narrative in the furtherance of empire. The first chapter examines Frederick J. Turner's "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" and Owen Wister's The Virginian (1902) as representatives of the new romanticization of the West. Chapter two looks at how Willa Cather's anti-spectacle novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927), responds to the spectacle of Empire at early twentieth-century World's Fairs. The final chapter pairs Japanese-American Internment during World War II with Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses (1992), as a commentary on the oppressive rhetoric of western space.

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University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

Thesis (M.A.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-96). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept of English, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 70-73).

The marriages depicted in Willa Cather's fiction are a crucial element of her works. Although she does not describe in detail the marital relationships between her characters, Cather does depict these marriages realistically, and they are also interrelated with the major themes of her fiction. The marriages in Cather's works are divided into three general classifications: the successful, the borderline, and the failure. The successful marriage is characterized by affection and friendship. In the borderline marriages the partners are mutually dissatisfied with their relationship, but they do not separate or divorce. The marital failures are complete breakdowns that result in irreparable wounds healed only by the complete withdrawal or death of one of the partners. A study of marriage in Cather's works reveals there are more successful marriages than failures.