ABSTRACT
The engagement with the issue of geography and identity, which is so prevalent in American literature, has inspired a myriad of writers. Willa Cather and Toni Morrison are authors for whom the question of space and identity is central to their literary endeavors. Approaching the land as a female space is not original to North America. It is the by-product of a long standing tradition which resurfaces in “New World” literature. “Instead of shaping masculine space into something feminine,” Ruth Salvaggio proposes, “women bring feminine space to life by writing from, through, and about the spaces women themselves have occupied”. Women, Morrison proposes, have a more intimate relationship with place because they perform more intimate tasks in that space. Textual space is as vital to identity formation as is geographic space. A common interest in issues of identity and space take Cather and Morrison over a great deal of similar terrain.
