Thesis (M.A.)--Eastern Illinois University, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-99).

Literature is a source that enriches students’ language ability on every level and short stories are a form that is suitable for adolescent students. To young people, memories from childhood are still close and vivid. To most these memories are mixed; among games and adventures there are both happiness and disappointments, both childhood friendships and betrayals. It is a topic everyone can talk about and many discussions can be developed from it. In addition, the short story is a genre that can be easily applied to the classroom because of its length. There is no great risk that the students will not remember the content of the story after reading. For students that are not pursuing further academic life, or low-performing students, short stories are definitely a better choice than novels. This essay sets out to compare three of Willa Cather’s short stories: “The Way of the World”, “The Enchanted Bluff” and “The Treasure of Far Island”. All three stories show us a childhood world as experienced by a group of children centered round a leader. These childhood worlds are portrayed from an adult perspective, with much beauty and nostalgia, giving a sense of the innocence, excitement and magic of a childhood paradise. The essay argues that it is through the power of children’s imagination that their paradise is created and that sooner or later paradise is lost. However, in the last of the three stories, the childhood paradise is regained in adulthood through the artistic imagination.

My project is a discussion of the differing styles of narrative found in Willa Cathers <i>My Ántonia</i>. My paper is founded on the premise that these differing styles of narrative are emblematic of larger, more fundamental cultural differences in the novel. Using George Dekkers The American Historical Romance as my framework, I identify two prevailing cultures in Cathers novelprogressive culture and traditional cultureand suggest that the narrative and the narrator wavers between them. As traditional culture is linked by Dekker with both the rural and the oral, and progressive culture is linked with the urban and the literate, I examine how the narrators movement between the two locations creates a shift in narrative style. The differing narratives styles and the cultures of which they are representative have an uneasy relationship in <i>My Ántonia</i>, and this paper examines their presence and the possibility of their continued co-existence.

My project is a discussion of the differing styles of narrative found in Willa Cathers <i>My Ántonia</i>. My paper is founded on the premise that these differing styles of narrative are emblematic of larger, more fundamental cultural differences in the novel. Using George Dekkers The American Historical Romance as my framework, I identify two prevailing cultures in Cathers novelprogressive culture and traditional cultureand suggest that the narrative and the narrator wavers between them. As traditional culture is linked by Dekker with both the rural and the oral, and progressive culture is linked with the urban and the literate, I examine how the narrators movement between the two locations creates a shift in narrative style. The differing narratives styles and the cultures of which they are representative have an uneasy relationship in <i>My Ántonia</i>, and this paper examines their presence and the possibility of their continued co-existence.

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.

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In Willa Cather's My Ántonia, nostalgia marks both the ambience of the novel and its critical focus. This thesis illuminates Cather's self-aware deployment of nostalgia as an artistic tool and nostalgia's role in Jim Burden's agenda-driven narrative. Jim adopts nostalgic narrative as propaganda to justify and glorify his past and present life, presenting his past as a simplified and romanticized origin myth. However, through the novel's frame narrative and the frequent, jarring vignettes of violence and discord, Cather undermines Jim's authority as a narrator and prompts reconsideration of Cather's endorsement of his nostalgic creation. By appreciating the complex deployment of nostalgia within the text we are prompted to reconsider assumptions about nostalgia, Cather, and Cather's interest in representations of the past.

This project examines Cather’s experimentation with conflicting voices of narrative authority in the presentation of four central female characters in The Professor’s House, using St. Peter and an entity termed the implied narrator as lenses through which we view other characters. The project is broken down into four chapters, each dealing one addressing the central issues involving that specific female character.

Thesis--Uppsala. / Bibliography: p. 120-124.

abstract: Libby Larsen is one of the most performed and acclaimed composers today. She is a spirited, compelling, and sensitive composer whose music enhances the poetry of America's most prominent authors. Notable among her works are song cycles for soprano based on the poetry of female writers, among them novelist and poet Willa Cather (1873-1947). Larsen has produced two song cycles on works from Cather's substantial output of fiction: one based on Cather's short story, "Eric Hermannson's Soul," titled Margaret Songs: Three Songs from Willa Cather (1996); and later, My Antonia (2000), based on Cather's novel of the same title. In Margaret Songs, Cather's poetry and short stories--specifically the character of Margaret Elliot--combine with Larsen's unique compositional style to create a surprising collaboration. This study explores how Larsen in these songs delves into the emotional and psychological depths of Margaret's character, not fully formed by Cather. It is only through Larsen's music and Cather's poetry that Margaret's journey through self-discovery and love become fully realized. This song cycle is a glimpse through the eyes of two prominent female artists on the societal pressures placed upon Margaret's character, many of which still resonate with women in today's culture. This study examines the work Margaret Songs by discussing Willa Cather, her musical influences, and the conditions surrounding the writing of "Eric Hermannson's Soul." It looks also into Cather's influence on Libby Larsen and the commission leading to Margaret Songs. Finally, a description of the musical, dramatic, and textual content of the songs completes this interpretation of the interactions of Willa Cather, Libby Larsen, and the character of Margaret Elliot. / Dissertation/Thesis / D.M.A. Music 2013