Abstract
The thesis takes the Mother image as the point of departure to decode the anti-tradition of the short fiction of The Sculptor’s Funeral of Willa Cather, and then analyzes the author’s feminist thoughts. It firstly analyzes Cather’s rebellion against the male-dominate society by comparing to traditional mothers through the research of the anti-traditional Mother image itself. Further, the thesis dissects Cather’s feminism in the perspective of time spirits by analyzing the Western Pioneer Spirits which is reflected from the Mother image.
Keywords   Willa Cather   Mother Image   Feminism   Anti-tradition  

本文从母亲形象入手，对美国女作家薇拉•凯瑟的短篇小说《雕塑家的葬礼》的反传统性进行解读, 以探讨凯瑟的女权主义思想。文章首先探讨“母亲”这一人物形象自身的反传统性，通过与传统母亲形象的对比，体会凯瑟对男权社会的反思。之后，文章透过母亲形象，研究其表象后所反映的西部拓荒精神，进而从时代精神的角度来深层次剖析凯瑟的女权主义思想。
关键词   薇拉•凯瑟   母亲形象   女权主义   反传统性

Willa Cather (1873-1947) is one of the most famous American female writers in the first half of the 20th century. Geismar, a well-known critic, once praised her as “a fender of the spiritual beauty during the material process” (Du Qiaoling,  2009: 21). Cather’s novels reflect deep thoughts, dense breath of life and various themes. In general, themes of her novels can be classified into four types: novels describing pioneers’ real life in the frontier zone of American Midwest, novels reflecting arts’ life, novels memorizing childhood, and novels based on the experience of the prairie. Some of her most famous novels are The Song of the Lark, Oh Pioneers, and My Antonia.