Primary Works

At Fault, (1890); "The Story of an Hour" (E-Text), 1894; Bayou Folk, (1894); A Night in Acadie, (1897); The Awakening, (1899).

| Top | Selected Bibliography: Books

Bloom, Harold, ed. Kate Chopin. New York: Chelsea House, 1987. PS1294 .C63 K38

Boren, Lynda S., and Sara Davis. eds. Kate Chopin Reconsidered: Beyond the Bayou. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1992. PS1294 .C63 K385

Ewell, Barbara C. Kate Chopin. New York: Ungar Pub. Co., 1986. PS1294 .C63 Z64

Martin, Wendy, ed. New Essays on The Awakening. New York: Cambridge, 1988.

Seyersted, Per. Kate Chopin. A Critical Biography. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP 1969. PS1294 .C63 Z95

Showalter, Elaine. Sister's Choice: Tradition and Change in American Women's Writing. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1991. PS147 .S48

Skaggs, Peggy. Kate Chopin. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1985. PS1294 .C63 S55

Springer, Marlene. Edith Wharton and Kate Chopin: A Reference Guide. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1976. Z8969.2 S66

Taylor, Helen. Gender, Race, and Region in the Writings of Grace King, Ruth McEnery Stuart, and Kate Chopin. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1989. PS266 .L8 T39

Toth, Emily. Kate Chopin. New York: Morrow, 1990. PS1294 .C6 T68

Walker, Nancy ed. The Awakening: Kate Chopin. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1993.

| Top | Selected Bibliography: Articles

Brightwell, Geri. "Charting the Nebula: Gender, Language and Power in Kate Chopin's The Awakening." Women and Language 18:2 (Fall 1995): 37-41.

Craft, Brigette W. "Imaginative Limits: Ideology and The Awakening." Southern Studies 4:2 (Summer 1993): 131-39.

Dawson, Hugh J. "Kate Chopin's The Awakening: A Dissenting Opinion." American Literary Realism 26.2 (Wint 1994): 1-18.

Fluck, Winfried. "Tentative Transgressions: Kate Chopin's Fiction as a Mode of Symbolic Action." Studies in American Fiction 10 2 (Autumn 1982): 151-71.

Franklin, Rosemary F. "The Awakening and the Failure of Psyche." American Literature 56 4 (Dec. 1984): 510-516.

Gilbert, Sandra M. "The Second Coming of Aphrodite: Kate Chopin's Fantasy of Desire." The Kenyon Review 5 3 (Summer 1983): 42-66.

Heath, Stephen. "Chopin's Parrot." Textual Practice 8:1 (Spring 1994): 11-32.

Hochman, Barbara. "The Awakening and The House of Mirth: Plotting Experience and Experiencing Plot." The Cambridge Companion to American Realism and Naturalism: Howells to London. Ed. Donald Pizer. Cambridge UP, 1995. 211-35.

Koloski, Bernard, ed. Approaches to Teaching Chopin's The Awakening. MLA: 1988. (numerous articles)

Leder, Priscilla. "Land's End: The Awakening and 19th century Literary Tradition." Critical Essays on Kate Chopin. Ed. Alice H. Petry. New York: Hall, 1996. 237-50

Levine, Robert S. "Circadian Rhythms and Rebellion in Kate Chopin's The Awakening." Studies in American Fiction 10 1 (Spring 1982): 71-81.

May, John R. "Local Color in The Awakening." The Southern Review 6 (Fall 1970): 1031-40.

Nelles, William. "Edna Pontellier's Revolt against Nature." American Literary Realism 32.1 (Fall 1999): 43-51.

Potter, Richard H. "Kate Chopin and Her Critics: An Annotated Checklist." The Bulletin - Missouri Historical Society 26 (July 1970): 306-17.

Ringe, Donald A. "Romantic Imagery in Kate Chopin's The Awakening." American Literature 43 (Jan. 1972): 580-88.

Rocks, James E. "Kate Chopin's Ironic Vision." Louisiana Review 1 (Winter 1972): 11-20.

| Top | Rosen, Kenneth M. "Kate Chopin's The Awakening: Ambiguity as Art." Journal of American Studies 5 (Aug. 1971): 197-99.

Seidel, Kathryn L. "Picture Perfect: Painting in The Awakening." Critical Essays on Kate Chopin. Ed. Alice H. Petry. New York: Hall, 1996. 227-36.

Skaggs, Peggy. "Three Tragic Figures in Kate Chopin's The Awakening." Louisiana Studies 13 (Winter 1974): 345-64.

Sullivan, Ruth and Stewart Smith. "Narrative Stance in Kate Chopin's The Awakening." Studies in American Fiction 1 (Spring 1973): 62-75.

Thomas, Heather K. " 'The House of Style' in Kate Chopin's 'Athenaise' ." Critical Essays on Kate Chopin. Ed. Alice H. Petry. New York: Hall, 1996. 207-17.

Toth, Emily. "The Independent Woman and `Free Love.'" Massachusetts Review 16 (Autumn 1975): 647-64.

Wagner, Martin L. "Kate Chopin's Fascination with Young Men." Critical Essays on Kate Chopin. Ed. Alice H. Petry. New York: Hall, 1996. 197-206.

Walker, Nancy. "Feminist or Naturalist: The Social Context of Kate Chopin's The Awakening." Southern Quarterly 17 (1979): 95-103.

- - -. "Her Own Story: The Woman of Letters in Kate Chopin's Short Fiction." Critical Essays on Kate Chopin. Ed. Alice H. Petry. New York: Hall, 1996. 218-26.

Wheeler, Otis B. "The Five Awakenings of Edna Pontellier." Southern Review 11 (Jan. 1975): 118-28.

Wolff, Cynthia Griffin. "Thanatos and Eros: Kate Chopin's The Awakening." American Q. 25 (Oct. 1973): 449-71.

- - - - -. "Un-Utterable Longing: The Discourse of Feminine Sexuality in The Awakening." Studies in american fiction 24.1 (Sprg 1996): 3-23.

Zlotnick, Joan. "A Woman's Will: Kate Chopin on Selfhood, Wifehood, and Motherhood." Markham Review 3 (Oct. 1968): 1-5.

| Top | The Awakening (April 22, 1899)

The novel was condemned all over America on moral grounds. It was banned from the hometown St. Louis library and Kate Chopin was denied membership in a local arts club. Her other works include her first novel, At Fault (1890), and two collections of short stories, Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897).

Principal Characters: Edna Pontellier, a who experiences an awakening - she discovers her need to be an individual rather than merely a wife and mother; Leonce Pontellier, her Creole husband, treats Edna as if she were a possession; Robert Lebrun, a gentle young man who falls in love with Edna; Madame Adele Ratignolle, becomes Edna's friend; Mademoiselle Reisz, plays Chopin's preludes, the music contributes to Edna's awakening; Alcee Arobin, Edna's lover. Locale: Louisiana.

| Top | Study Questions

1. Consider alternative titles for Clemens's and Chopin's novels: The Awakening of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Edna Pontellier. Comment on the incongruity of each of these alternative titles in terms of the novels' designs, themes, and development of the central character.

2. Discuss Kate Chopin as a writer of local color fiction. To what extent does she appeal to a reader's natural interest in an aspect of regional society and life with which few had personal experience?

3. Edna Pontellier is caught in the contradictions between the way others see her and the way she sees herself. Identify several moments in which this becomes apparent, and show Edna's growing awareness of the contradiction.

4. Count, characterize, and analyze the numerous women of color in The Awakening. What does their presence and their treatment in the novel suggest about Edna's (and Chopin's) attitudes toward human development for nonwhite and poor women?

5. Some readers have described Edna's death in The Awakening as suicide; others view it as her attempt at self-realization. Argue the relative truth of both interpretations.

MLA Style Citation of this Web Page

Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 6: Late Nineteenth Century - Kate Chopin." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. URL:http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap6/chopin.html (provide page date or date of your login).  

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