This panorama of a distinctly American literary world details a persistent pattern of plot and characterization in the work of a significant group of women writers. Starting with the nineteenth-century domestic novel, many women authors have challenged the male literary icon of the womanless, free-standing male adventurer who shapes the natural world to his individual vision. Instead, works by Sarah Orne Jewett, Willa Cather, Ellen Glasgow, Katherine Anne Porter, Eudora Welty, and Gloria Naylor envision a semidivine female figure who brings into being an alternative community which honors female worth and female creativity. The works of these writers offer the empowerment of female authorship and acknowledge the woman's community whose collective experience shapes their narratives.