![]() In My Ántonia, Cather’s heroine nearly achieves the status of a goddess, or at least earth mother. Willa Cather, the author most often cited by scholars of the American West, offers an immigrant female version of the pioneer prototype we have come to expect: that is, physically and emotionally strong Anglo women living through hardship and grief but ultimately emerging triumphant. 1 The extent of their challenge, moreover, is not often as great as might be hoped for. Female-authored narratives of the West sometimes challenge the hierarchies of conventional westerns but are typically less ambitious in scope. ![]() Conventional western narratives, including western dime novels, Louis L’Amour novels, and classic western films, inscribe an Anglo-Saxon, U.S. Toni Morrison’s 1998 novel Paradise is unique among narratives of the American West. ![]()
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