Kate Chopin & The Awakening
Literary Perspectives
Critical Responses in 1899
(Published April 1899)
• “Trite and sordid”
• “Essentially vulgar”
• “Unhealthily introspective and morbid in
feeling”
• “. . .its disagreeable glimpses of
sensuality are repellent" (from The
Outlook,1899)
From the St. Louis Daily
Globe-Democrat (1899)
"It is not a healthy book; if it points any
particular moral or teaches any lesson, the
fact is not apparent. . . . Mrs. Pontellier
does not love her husband. The poison of
passion seems to have entered her system,
with her mother's milk."
From The Providence Sunday Journal (1899)
"The worst of such stories is that they will
fall into the hands of youth, leading
them to dwell on things that only
matured persons can understand, and
promoting unholy imaginations and
unclean desires. It is nauseating to
remember that those who object to the
bluntness of our older writers will
excuse and justify the gilded dirt of
these latter days."
The Chicago Tribune June 1, 1899
“That the book is strong and that
Miss Chopin has a keen knowledge of
certain phases of feminine character will
not be denied. But it was not necessary
for a writer of so great refinement and
poetic grace to enter the overworked field
of sex fiction.”
From The Nation (1899)
"Had [Chopin] lived by Prof. William James's
advice to do one thing a day one does not
want to do (in Creole society, two would
perhaps be better), flirted less and looked
after her children more, or even assisted at
more accouchements . . . we need not have
been put to the unpleasantness of reading
about her and the temptations she trumped
up for herself."
Public Opinion, June 22, 1899
“If the author had secured our sympathy
for this unpleasant person [Edna] it
would have been a small victory, but we
are well satisfied when Mrs. Pontellier
deliberately swims out to her death in
the waters of the gulf.”
Extracted from the Norton Critical Edition (Ed.
Margo Culley, 2nd ed., New York: W.W.
Norton & Company, 1994).
Chopin’s response:
“Having a group of
people at my disposal
[the characters in her
novel], I thought it might
be entertaining (to
myself) to throw them
together and see what
would happen. . . .
“I never dreamed of Mrs. Pontellier
making such a mess of things and
working out her own damnation as she
did.” (Chopin’s response cont.)
(Book
News July 1899).
Contemporary Response to
The Awakening
“She’s one of those writers whose sense
of craft puts her right on the edge of
poetry. . . . The rediscovery of The
Awakening came as a Godsend, the
most incredible gift to the women’s
movement” Prof. Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Emory U.
Others deplore the novel’s “misuse as
a political manifesto” for feminism.
“The Awakening is consummate art.
The theme is difficult, but it is handled
with cunning craft. The work is more
than unusual. It is unique. The integrity
of its art is that of well-knit individuality
at one with itself, with nothing
superfluous to weaken the impression of
a perfect whole.”
C.L. Deyo, reviewer
Contemporary Controversy
When Chopin’s work became available in
the 1970s, scholars defined her as a
feminist, a local colorist, a regionalist, a
romantic, an anti-romantic, a neotranscendentalist, a realist, a naturalist,
and an existentialist. Critics are still
debating the issue.
Well?
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•
•
•
•
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Realism?
Regionalism?
Local Color?
Naturalism?
Romanticism?
Feminism?
On Realism
• presents an accurate imitation of life
• the characters are drawn to present the
reader with the illusion of actual experience
• topics covered include love, marriage,
parenthood, infidelity, and death
• characters find life dull and are often
unhappy, but find touches of joy and beauty
in life
(M. H. Abrams)
On Local Color and Regionalism
fiction and poetry that focuses on the
characters, dialect, customs,
topography, and other features
particular to a specific region.
Its weaknesses may include nostalgia or
sentimentality.
More on Local Color
• According to the Oxford Companion to
American Literature, "In local-color
literature one finds the dual influence of
romanticism and realism, since the
author frequently looks away from
ordinary life to distant lands, strange
customs, or exotic scenes, but retains
through minute detail a sense of fidelity
and accuracy of description" (439).
Local Color vs. Regionalism
• “Regional literature incorporates the broader
concept of sectional differences, but some
critics have argued convincingly that the
distinguishing characteristic that separates
‘local color’ writers from ‘regional’ writers is
instead the exploitation of and condescension
toward their subjects that the local color
writers demonstrate” (From the Encyclopedia
of Southern Literature).
Local Color vs. Realism
Eric Sundquist: "Economic or political
power can itself be seen to be definitive.
. .those in power (say, white urban
males) have been more often judged
'realists,' while those removed from the
seats of power (say, Midwesterners,
blacks, immigrants, or women) have
been categorized as regionalists“ (from
the Encyclopedia of Southern
Literature).
What does Chopin do?
• Draws on personal
experience to color
the settings, details,
and characters.
•Presents a clearly drawn portrait of life on
Grand Isle and in New Orleans.
• Shows Catholic Creoles
with European customs,
polyglot witty speech,
rich agricultural
landscape of
picturesque
Natchitoches Parish.
• Skillfully integrates
French in the English
narrative
•Develops a moving, soaring,
lyrical, poetic style with
beautiful use of imagery
•Exceptional depictions of
nature -- not necessarily as a
benevolent force
Naturalism
“The naturalist often describes his
characters as though they are
conditioned and controlled by
environment, heredity, instinct, or
chance. But he also suggests a
compensating humanistic value in his
characters or their fates which affirms
the significance of the individual and of
his life. . . .
“The tension [for the naturalist writer] is. .
.between the new, discomfiting truths. .
.found in the ideas and life of the late
nineteenth-century. . .and. . .his desire
to find some meaning in experience
which reasserts the validity of the
human enterprise” (from Pizer’s
Realism and Naturalism in NineteenthCentury American Fiction, rev. ed.
(1984).
Romanticism
“a tendency towards melodrama and idyll;
a more or less formal abstractness and,
on the other hand, a tendency to plunge
into the underside of consciousness; a
willingness to abandon moral questions
or to ignore the spectacle of man in
society, or to consider these things only
indirectly or abstractly” (Chase, The
American Novel and Its Tradition ix).
Feminism
Chopin denied that she
was a feminist or a
suffragette. Her fiction
repeatedly deals with
female characters’
efforts to find place,
love, and autonomy in
a society that denies
these needs.
According to Treu, Chopin took women
seriously and had a different understanding
of freedom: spirit, soul, character living life
within the constraints the world and God
gave.
Chopin wrote about many kinds of
people, but all seem to lack a clear concept
of their own roles and purposes in life; a
constant groping for self-knowledge shapes
their personalities and actions.
Literary criticism involves judging the
value of literature based on such things as
the personal and/or cultural significance of
the themes, the uses of language, the
insights and impact, and the aesthetic
quality of the text.
Part of a critic’s job is to patrol the
boundaries of good writing and
determine what cultural value should be
placed on a text.
What constitutes, guides, and
legitimizes interpretation?
Literary theory attempts to explain what
the nature of literature is, what
functions it has, what the relation of
text is to author, to reader, to
language, to society, to history.
Since literary theory provides a position
through which or from which the
reader/critic interacts with the text, the
theoretical stance will prejudice—or at
least inform—the critic’s evaluation.
Source: Lye, John. “The Differences between Literary Criticism, Literary Theory, and ‘Theory Itself.’” For ENGL 4F70:
Contemporary Literary Criticism. St. Catherine’s, Ontario: Brock University, 1998. 18 Mar. 2005.
www.brocku.ca/english/courses/4F70/crit.vs.theory.html.
Theories of Literary Criticism:
Marxist: challenges power structure
Feminist: Marxist re females
New Historicist: bio & historical context
Archetypal/Mythic: universal patterns
Freudian: sexual archetypes & unconscious
New Criticism: explores how the text is written
Postmodernist/Deconstructionist: the value of
any text is relative, personal, and
subjective
What are her themes?
• the dilemma of an individual’s conflicting
responsibilities to others and to herself
• a wife’s impatience and frustration with
marriage
• A rejection of the traditional roles of
women
• a woman’s acknowledgement of and
responses to her sexual urges
• the results of acting on one’s nature and
impulses
• alienation
• the search for freedom
• the search for identity—a theme that
recurs in Chopin’s work
How do her themes fit in with the
various literary aesthetics, theories,
and perspectives?
1. Find passages, evidence that identify it
as belonging to your literary school; then
explain how critics with your perspective
would interpret the novel (20 min.).
CFHS: Naturalist, Feminist & Marxist
RHS: Romantic & Archetypal/Mythic
SHS: Realist, Regionalist & Historicist
2. Report back (3 min. each; 10 min. total)
3. Vote?