Transcending gender boundaries: A study of Willa Cather's early novels

Using the theories of feminist scholars Sherry Ortner, Nancy Chodorow, and Carol Gilligan, this essay explores Willa Cather's questioning of traditional gender roles in the following novels: Alexander's Bridge, O Pioneers!, My Antonia, and The Professor's House. Briefly, Cather's most successful characters are usually women who play male as well as female roles, i.e., women who transcend gender boundaries. As Cather moves from O Pioneers! to My Antonia to The Professor's House, however, the women character who transcends gender boundaries descends from the status of protagonist to minor character. This movement signals Cather's loss of her female voice and her capitulation to traditional expectations for men and women.