Volume IV Special Issue IV April 2024

Name of Author : Dr. Shveta Tripathi

Title of the paper : Situating Diasporic Identities in Willa Cathers Fiction with Special Reference to My Antonia

Abstract: Movements or relocations can alter identities to a great degree. American fiction has discussed substantially about the importance of a home both literal and longed for. Joseph R. Vrgos remarks that American literary history reflects the interplay of rootedness and migrancy, settlement and escape qtd in Russell 2006, 2. Whatever reason may back the relocation, for an immigrant this change in location brings a drastic transformation. It serves both, as an escape from something, or towards something. Willa Cather’s fiction discusses about the life and struggle of immigrants. Geographical social mobility affects an identity to a great extent, as it becomes difficult for a migrant to get detached-attached from hisher past and confer to the new surroundings easily. Willa Cather herself witnessed a major migration at a very tender age of just nine years the sudden uprooting might have resulted in her an identity crisis, the strong imprints of which could be found in her frontier themes, where land plays an important role.

Keywords : Environment, Self-Identity, Diaspora, American fiction, Identity crisis

DOI :

Page Number : 9-13