My Ántonia CONTEXT

Question 1

When was My Antonia published?

Answer 1

1918

Question 2

Where did Willa Cather grow up?

Answer 2

In Virginia and then moved to Nebraska where her father tried farming for 18 months and then they moved to Red Cloud where she attended school - like Jim

Question 3

Where did 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, the vastness of the Nebraska prairie, and the migrants in the area.

Question 5

How was Cather different for 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 William.

Question 6

In what year did she receive the Pulitzer prize?

Answer 6

1923

Question 7

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

Answer 7

The Queer theory lens as she lived with women and had strong bonds with them- she was buried next to Edith Lewis who she lived with for forty years

Question 8

Why did Cather say she used male narrators?

Answer 8

As she claimed a women’s perspective was too sentimental

Question 9

What is the NAWSA?

Answer 9

The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) formed in 1890 with 7000 members which eventually 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 came women the vote.

Question 10

What is similar about Antonia and Willa Cather?

Answer 10

They both gave themselves male nicknames - Tony and William.

Question 11

Where is the novel set?

Answer 11

In Nebraska which is in the midwest of America. The great plains are treeless and suitable for cattle grazing. There is a wide variation between winter and summer. Black Hawk is a fictional town based on Red Cloud a real city in Nebraska where Cather lived during her childhood.

Question 12

When was the railway built in Nebraska?

Answer 12

In 1844 US Representative Stephen Douglas campaigned for the construction of the railway to the Pacific coast. It was completed in 1869.

Question 13

What is the pastoral genre?

Answer 13

A genre in which the author employs various techniques to place a complex life into a simple one focusing on nature, farming and rural lifestyles. It often presents farmers as free from corruption and complexity of city life.

Question 14

What is American Romanticism?

Answer 14

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

Question 15

What is a Bildungsroman?

Answer 15

A novel dealing with one’s formative years also called coming of age novels. “bildung” means education and “roman” means novel in German. They gained popularity in 1905.

Question 16

What is a Roman Clef?

Answer 16

A novel about real life overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people.

Question 17

Where is Bohemia?

Answer 17

A medieval and early modern monarchy in central Europe and the predecessor of the modern Czech Republic.

Question 18

What is the melting pot theory?

Answer 18

Describes the integration of immigrants as mixing of cultures.

Question 19

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

Answer 19

20 million

Question 20

When were women allowed to vote?

Answer 20

With the passing of the 19th amendment in 1920

Question 21

What was the Homestead Act of 1862?

Answer 21

To encourage people to move west and settle the vast wilderness the U.S. government passed the Homestead Act of 1862, which promised 160 acres of land to those who lived on the land for five years. The benefits of the Homestead Act were open to anyone over age 21, including women, blacks, and immigrants. As a result, huge waves of settlers poured into the Midwestern plains. By 1900 over 600,000 claims for property had been filed.

Question 22

What was the prominent religion in Bohemia?

Answer 22

Catholicism - the religion of the Shimerdas

Question 23

Who did Cather base Antonia on?

Answer 23

In 1916 Cather visited Annie Pavelka in Nebraska. Friends with Cather from childhood, Annie, a Bohemian immigrant, had been the hired girl of Cather’s neighbours in Red Cloud. By 1916 Annie was the mother of a large number of children and lived on a farm near the town. Annie Pavelka’s father committed suicide like Mr Shimerda. Annie’s employers in Red Cloud, the Miners, inspired Ántonia’s employers, the Harlings.

Question 24

What is the Puritan Work Ethic?

Answer 24

The idea that through hard work Protestants would be rewarded by God in heaven.

Question 25

When did the pilgrims first travel to America?

Answer 25

The Mayflower was an English ship that transported the first English Puritans, known today as the Pilgrims, from Plymouth, England, to the New World in 1620 where they sought religious freedom in the Ede like America.