AO3: My Antonia

Question 1

When was “My Antonia” published?

Answer 1

1918

Question 2

Where did Willa Cather grow up?

Answer 2

Virginia, then moved to Nebraska where her father tried farming for 18 months then moved to Red Cloud where she attended school ( like Jim)

Question 3

Where di Cather graduate from?

Answer 3

Nebraska Lincoln: same as JIm

Question 4

What was Cather moved by when she lived in Nebraska?

Answer 4

The intense environment, weather, vastness of Nebraska prairie, and the migrants in the area

Question 5

How was Cather different from other girls?

Answer 5

She was the eldest of 7 and got on better with her brothers and dressed as a boy - had short hair and was called Willam

Question 6

What year did she recieve the Pulitzer prize?

Answer 6

1923

Question 7

What critical reading can Cather’s work be viewed under?

Answer 7

The Queer theory lense as she lived with women and had strong bonds with them - she was buried next to Editch Lewis who lived with her for 40 years

Question 8

Why did Cather say she used male narrators/

Answer 8

She claimed a woman’s perspective was too sentimental

Question 9

What is the NAWSA?

Answer 9

The National American Woman Suffrage Association - formed in 1800 with 700 members

Question 10

What did the NAWSA contribute towards

Answer 10

Their population reached 2 million, making it the largest voluntary organisation in the USA
It played a pivotal role in the passing of the 19th amendment which included women in the vote

Question 11

What is similar about Antonia and Willa Cather?

Answer 11

They both gave themselves male nicknames - Tony and william

Question 12

Where is the novel set?

Answer 12

• Nebraska (midwest America).
• The great plains are treeless and suitable for cattle grazing.
• Wide variation between summer + winter.
• Black Halk is a fictional town based on Red Cloud a REAL city in Nebraska where Cather lived during her childhood

Question 13

When was the railway built in Nebraska?

Answer 13

1844 US Representative Stephen Douglas campaigned for the construction of the railway to the Pacific Coast
It was completed 1869

Question 14

What is the pastoral genre?

Answer 14

A genre in which authors employ various techniques to place a complex life into a simple one focusing on nature, farming + rural lifestyles.
Often presents farmers as free from corruption and complexity of city life

Question 15

What is American Romanticism?

Answer 15

1st fully fledged literary movement in the US from 1820- 1860 when America was still a new nation.
They saw an untamed wilderness as full of promise and west America as new + exciting. Willa Cather was inspired by this.

Question 16

What is a bildungsroman?

Answer 16

A novel dealing wiht one’s formative years also called coming of age novels

Question 17

What is a Roman Clef?

Answer 17

A novel about real life overlaid with a facade of fiction. The ficticious names in the novel represent real pwop;le

Question 18

Where is Bohemia?

Answer 18

A medival and ealr modern monarchy in central Europ and the predecessor of the modern Czech Republic

Question 19

What is the melting pot theory?

Answer 19

Describes the integration of immigrants and mixing of cultures

Question 20

How many immigrants traveled to America from the 1880s to 1920s?

Answer 20

20 milly

Question 21

When were women allowed to vote?

Answer 21

1920s - due to the passing of the 19th amendment

Question 22

Why was the Homestead Act of 1862 introduced?

Answer 22

To encourage people to move west and settle in the vast wilderness

Question 23

What did the Homestead Act 1862 promise?

Answer 23

160 acres of land to those who lived on the land for 5 years

Question 24

Which people benfitied from Homestead ACt 1862?

Answer 24

Anyone 21+, including women, blacks + immigrants.
Huge waves of settlers poured into the Midwestern plains

Question 25

What was the result of the Homestead ACt 1862?

Answer 25

By 1900 over 600,000 claims for property had been filled

Question 26

What was the prominent religion on Bohemia?

Answer 26

Catholicism - the religion of the Shimerdas

Question 27

Who did Cather base Antonia on?

Answer 27

1916 Annie Pavelka a friend of cather - a Bohemian immgrant

Question 28

How was Annie Pavelka similar to Antonia?

Answer 28

• 1916 Annie was a mother of a large no of children and lived on a farm near the town
• AP father committed suicide
• Annie’s employers in Red Cloud, the Miners, inspired Antonias employers = the Harlings

Question 29

What is the Puritan woek ethic?

Answer 29

The idea that through hard work protestants woudl be rewarded by God in heaven

Question 30

When did pilgrims first travel to America?

Answer 30

~The Mayflower was an English ship that transported the 1st English puritans, known today as pilgrims, from Plymouth, England, to the New World 1620 where they sought religious freedom in the Ede like America