"By redefining social or economic "classes" as cultures, or as Raymond Williams explains, groups that share a "structure of feeling," the dissertation defines power in accordance with the shared values, beliefs, attitudes, and practices defined by the culture of persistence and the culture of wealth. With culturally determined definitions of power in place, the dissertation argues for a broader understanding of female power as the power is accessed and wielded by female characters in the writings of Willa Cather, Gabriel García Márquez, and Dorothy Allison. Engaging the strategies of feminist geographies employed, critics including Doreen Massey, Gillian Rose, and the Women and Geography Study Group, the dissertation analyzes the methods by which female characters negotiate successes or failures in accessing and wielding power."