Childhood in literature - An analysis on Willa Cather's use of childhood in her short stories

Abstract

I denne oppgaven har jeg tatt for meg syv av Willa Cathers noveller i et forsøk på å knytte de opp mot problemstillingen: hvordan påvirket Willa Cathers barndom hennes skildringer av miljøet og karakterene i hennes noveller?

Willa Cather skrev flere noveller om immigrering, livet på landsbygda, livet i byen og andre temaer som betød mye for henne. Hun vokste opp i Nebraska, USA, og brukte opplevelsene og minnene fra barndommen for å skrive noveller om de overnevnte temaene. Både oppveksten blant immigranter, familiesituasjonene hennes og miljøet rundt hjemmet hennes har hver og en påvirket hvordan hun har skildret karakterene og miljøet i sine fortellinger.

In this paper, I have chosen seven of Willa Cather's short stories in an attempt to answer the following research question: how did Willa Cather's childhood impact her depictions of the environment and characters in her short story writings?

Willa Cather wrote numerous short stories about immigration, life in the country, life in the city, and other themes that were close to her heart. Growing up in Nebraska, the USA, she used her experiences, and memories from her childhood to write short stories on the aforementioned themes. Both her upbringing amongst immigrants, her family situation and the environment around her home as each in their turn impacted the way she has depicted the characters and environment in her fiction.