Background and theoretical bases -- The first three novels : to be not female -- My Antonia : emergence and authorial revelations -- One of ours : stress and narrative de-articulation -- A lost lady : the prostitute as secret self -- The professor's house : poetic genius vs. literary structure -- My mortal enemy : struggle of the artistic self against nothingness -- Death comes for the archbishop : guerilla war of the female self -- The last three novels : re-visioning critical perspectives.