{"title":"\"The Great Divide\": Isolation in Willa Cather's O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark","authors":"Sophie Farthing","doi":"10.1353/gpq.2022.0002","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This essay examines the importance of isolation to the self-development of midwestern women in Willa Cather's early novels, O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark. Cather employs the natural physical isolation of the Great Plains and the Arizona desert to give her protagonists physical space for their work. Unlike some of Cather's other works, such as My Ántonia, which focus more on the negative effects of physical isolation, Cather offers in these novels a more complicated portrait of isolation's value to women who need independence from their communities in order to explore the widely dissimilar fields of agriculture and opera. While Cather does not shy away from the mental toll of isolation on her characters, she demonstrates the vital role that physical isolation plays in their successful careers.","PeriodicalId":12757,"journal":{"name":"Great Plains Quarterly","volume":"42 1","pages":"49 - 59"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Great Plains Quarterly","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/gpq.2022.0002","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:This essay examines the importance of isolation to the self-development of midwestern women in Willa Cather's early novels, O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark. Cather employs the natural physical isolation of the Great Plains and the Arizona desert to give her protagonists physical space for their work. Unlike some of Cather's other works, such as My Ántonia, which focus more on the negative effects of physical isolation, Cather offers in these novels a more complicated portrait of isolation's value to women who need independence from their communities in order to explore the widely dissimilar fields of agriculture and opera. While Cather does not shy away from the mental toll of isolation on her characters, she demonstrates the vital role that physical isolation plays in their successful careers.
期刊介绍：
In 1981, noted historian Frederick C. Luebke edited the first issue of Great Plains Quarterly. In his editorial introduction, he wrote The Center for Great Plains Studies has several purposes in publishing the Great Plains Quarterly. Its general purpose is to use this means to promote appreciation of the history and culture of the people of the Great Plains and to explore their contemporary social, economic, and political problems. The Center seeks further to stimulate research in the Great Plains region by providing a publishing outlet for scholars interested in the past, present, and future of the region."
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