Critical Insights: Kate Chopin

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This new collection of essays in the Critical Insights series delves into the literary world of Kate Chopin, one of the most influential and celebrated writers of the late nineteenth century. Encompassing such seminal works as “The Awakening,” “The Story of an Hour,” and “Désirée’s Baby,” this volume offers a comprehensive exploration of Chopin’s oeuvre through diverse critical lenses.

Employing feminist theory, psychoanalytic criticism, and postcolonial studies, the essays in this volume unravel the intricate layers of meaning embedded within Chopin’s texts. A comparative approach draws further insightful parallels and distinctions between her works and those of her contemporaries, enriching our understanding of her literary contributions and their enduring impact on the literary canon.

With its multifaceted approach and in-depth analyses, this collection promises to be an invaluable resource for scholars, students, and literary enthusiasts alike, offering a fresh and nuanced perspective on Kate Chopin’s literary genius.

Within these thirteen essays, introduction, biographical sketch, chronology, author’s bibliography, and academic bibliography, the reader will find a great many discussions and fresh interpretations: from the societal influences that inspired Chopin’s controversial work to the praise and criticism it garnered, even decades after its publication.

In the Introductory Essay, Laurence W. Mazzeno opens with a brief discussion of the evolution of Chopin’s The Awakening, which resurfaced in mainstream media in the late 1950s, nearly six decades after its initial publication. Mazzeno goes on to explore twelve introductions that have accompanied the novel in numerous presses. Written by prominent literary scholars and contemporary novelists, each introduction provides a unique perspective and interpretation of Chopin’s most influential novel.

The Introductory Essay is followed by a brief Biography of Chopin’s life, chronicling her years in Missouri and Louisiana, her marriage and early widowhood, and her journey to becoming an equally beloved and criticized writer.

The Four Critical Context Essays Include:

• “Too Frenchy for American readers”: Unreported Early Responses to Kate Chopin’s The Awakening
• Introducing Chopin’s Other Fiction: A Survey of Introductions to Editions of the Short Stories and At Fault
• Why Did Kate Chopin Not Condemn Edna Pontellier? The Awakening and a New Moral Order of Life Without Free Will
• Fictional and Cinematic Points of View in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and Five Stories of an Hour

Following the Critical Context essays is the Critical Readings section of this book, which contains the following essays:

• Parentage, Pleasure, and Passion: Structure, Style, and Themes in Chopin’s Stories
• Outside the Church Doors: Catholic High Holidays and Holy Days in Kate Chopin’s Short Fiction“Keep the skin soft and white”: Skin Color and Slavery in the American South and Kate Chopin’s “Désirée’s Baby”
• “The anguish of maternity”: Motherhood as Enslavement in Kate Chopin’s “Désirée’s Baby” and “La Belle Zoraïde
• Freedom, Dignity, and Growth: Making Old in Kate Chopin’s Short Fiction
• Edna and Emma: The Awakening and Madame Bovary
• Aestheticist Poetics in The Awakening
• Seeking “Abysses of Solitude” in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening: Examining Edna’s Final Act Through the Material Imagination of Water
• Winds and Waves of Death: Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and the Horrendous Gulf Coast Hurricane of 1893

In the final section, Resources, easy-to-follow lists are given in order to help guide the reader through important dates and moments in the author’s life. A selection of further reading is then provided. Each essay in Critical Insights: Kate Chopin includes a list of Works Cited and detailed endnotes. Also included in this volume is a Bibliography, biographies of the Editor and Contributors, as well as an alphabetical Index.

The Critical Insights Series distills the best of both classic and current literary criticism of the world’s most studies literature. Edited and written by some of academia’s most distinguished literary scholars, Critical Insights: Kate Chopin provides authoritative, in-depth scholarship that students and researchers will rely on for years. This volume is destined to become a valuable purchase for all.

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