Feminism+in+My+Antonia

Hi group! Please have your sheets describing feminism in literary criticism ready to go at the start of class. It would be a //very// good idea to have read them over before coming to class and think about the reading from a feminist standpoint. A brief overview- women are said to evolve through three stages: Feminine, Feminist, and Female. Be familiar with these! Look at the characters of Antonia, Lena, Antonia’s mother, and the “hired girls” and try to define where they fit in, and what kind of woman is depicted through farm and town life.

//Source 1:// Lena and Tiny succeed only in becoming more like the society from which they had been ostracized, while Ántonia, and the other country girls who stay on the land, ultimately change the structure of society itself. “Hope and Memory in //My Ántonia.”// Scholes, Robert E. [|www.galenet.galegroup.com]

//Source 2:// Cather's cross-gendered narration (signing her name Willa yet writing most of the novel in the voice of a male narrator) as well as her depictions of Jim's and Ántonia's identity crossings carry significant ramifications for feminism. These crossings unsettle the traditional distributions of power along gender lines. In other words, Cather represents subjects culturally defined as female (such as Ántonia) having access to masculine positions and subjects culturally defined as male (such as Jim) having access to feminine positions; by doing so, Cather explores the possibility of circulating power and privileges between male and female subjects. As I will argue, however, Cather also suggests the barriers in her culture to these crossings and the difficulties of redistributing power. "Identity Crossings and the Autobiographical Act in Willa Cather's //My Ántonia.//" Karen A. Hoffmann. [|www.galenet.galegroup.com]

//Questions://
 * 1) What does Cather say about love when she describes the relationship between Sylvester and Lena?
 * 2) Compare Lena and Antonia. How are they similar, and how are they different? How do you feel about them- like or hate? Why does Cather evoke these feelings?
 * 3) Are you surprised that Antonia would leave the Harling household for the Cutters? What about the dances might have drove her to do such a thing?
 * 4) All the girls seem to have some expectation of Jim- Lena wants him to be a traveling man, Tiny wants him to be a teacher, and Antonia wants him to be a doctor. Which of these paths do you think he will choose? What do the girls’ expectations say about the place and purpose of women during the time?
 * 5) Compare the ways that Antonia and Lena dance. How does this portray their characters? What does this say about their path in life? What comment does this make on women, from a feminist point of view?
 * 6) After the interaction between Jim and Antonia at the end of XII in //Hired Girls//, do you think a romantic relationship is possible between the two? Why or why not?
 * 7) What is the significance of the forgotten plow?
 * 8) Recall the saying at the beginning of the book- “In the lives of mortals, the best days are the first to flee.” Make predictions- Do you think this story will have a happy or sad ending?

//Opening Activity://

I’m going to have a list of several decades or time periods in American history. When I list each off, you will have about thirty seconds to define the stereotypical woman of each time. You will draw a chart with the columns “Role in Society”, “General Description”, “Impact on Society”, and most importantly, “Do we see her in a positive or negative light?”. We will then compare answers. Don’t worry about drawing the chart tonight- we’ll deal with that tomorrow.

Thanks guys- looking forward to discussion! And don’t worry, I’ve got food. : )

Melanie B.