Get ready, Shmoop-ineers. This is a tough one.
Historical Fiction
First things first. O Pioneers! might be a work of fiction, but its setting comes right out of American history. There were settlers on the Nebraskan Great Plains who might have lived very much like the Bergson family. The events in O Pioneers! take place against a background that is part of history, and even helps us to imagine what it must have been like to live in that time period. So that's why we call it historical fiction.
Coming-of-Age
A coming-of-age story portrays a character from childhood up through adulthood. Well, it's pretty clear that O Pioneers! does just that. The novel opens during Alexandra's adolescence, and follows her as she develops into the grounded, independent woman she is when decides to marry Carl Linstrum in the final chapters.
Realism
There is definitely some scholarly debate about the genre of O Pioneers! Critics like Janis Stout, for example, will have you believe that this is a realist novel, a literary work that tries to be as, well, realistic and true to life as possible. She bases this mostly on Cather's descriptions of her own work. But we also pick up on this while reading O Pioneers! Think about the cold, factual manner in which the murder of Emil and Marie is described, and we're sure you'll know what we mean.
But let's recall those depictions of nature in O Pioneers! How "realistic" are they? As we discuss in our section on "Symbols," there is a lot more going on in Cather's depictions of nature than plain old realism. In fact, the way Cather depicts nature is so deeply symbolic that it sometimes doesn't seem like she's really talking about what's outside anymore. Rather than just a backdrop, nature takes on an almost divine character, helping to determine and guide Cather's characters in their fates.
We could say that O Pioneers! is somewhere between realism and what's called transcendentalism, a literary and philosophical tendency to seek the evidence of a greater power in nature and human beings. Well, it turns out that's not so surprising. Walt Whitman, from whose poem "Pioneers! O Pioneers!" Cather adopts the title for her novel, is often considered to fall somewhere between realist and transcendentalist tendencies.
Modernism
Hold up—Whitman wrote that poem way back in 1865, but Cather publishes O Pioneers! decades later, in 1912. By then, literary modernism is going strong, having left realism and transcendentalism more or less in the dust. So, is Cather just old-fashioned? Well, in some ways, she is. But there are those who look past her emulation of past masters and find evidence of modernist themes in her novels.
For example, check out what Jo Ann Middleton has to say about this. Even if Cather writes in a realist mode, with a dash or two of Walt Whitman, her mindset is definitely modern. The characters in O Pioneers! definitely don't live in the Old World. Quite the opposite, in fact. Cather's characters live amidst a growing divide between rural areas and urban centers, a hallmark of modernity.
And on top of that, all the characters in O Pioneers! struggle with conflicting desires. They long for both freedom and stability, both adventure and familiarity. Because of these conflicts, we can't help but finish the book with a lingering sense of ambiguity, leaving us unsure what exactly to think and feel about people like Emil, Marie, Frank—and even Alexandra. That emotional disorientation definitely tells us there's a modernist element to this novel.
And let's not forget Alexandra.
Talk about an ambiguous character. On the one hand, Alexandra seems to belong to the land, guided by the impersonal will of nature. On the other hand, she proves herself fiercely independent, choosing to live just as she pleases. How free is Alexandra to be and do what she wants? What is the "nature" of her freedom?
We have way more to say about the question of Alexandra's freedom in her "Character Analysis." For now, suffice it to say that the ambiguity of personal freedom is a Big Deal in modernity. Because O Pioneers! takes a good, hard look at that ambiguity, it's definitely a modernist novel.