Kate Chopin (1850-1904)

A selective list of online literary criticism and analysis for the nineteenth-century American novelist and story writer Kate Chopin, favoring signed articles by recognized scholars and articles published in peer-reviewed sources

Introduction & Biography

The Kate Chopin International Society, web site edited by Prof. Bernard Koloski. Includes sections on Kate Chopin's biography, The Awakening, At Fault, and separate pages on each of the short stories "The Storm"; "The Story of an Hour"; "Athénaïse"; "Désirée's Baby"; "A Respectable Woman"; "A Pair of Silk Stockings"; "Lilacs"; and "At the 'Cadian Ball." The chapters include discussion questions, where to find an accurate text, and a recommended reading list. An excellent job, a model web site for online literary studies.

On "The Story of an Hour." Includes discussion questions, where to find an accurate text of the story, and a recommended reading list for "The Story of an Hour." Kate Chopin International Society.

"Kate Chopin." A brief introduction to Kate Chopin, from the college textbook publisher the Heath Anthology of American Literature.

"Kate Chopin: 'Désirée's Baby.'" Three audio files: Prof. Fonseca reading from a section of the story, lecturing on it, and discussing ways to write about it. Also, lectures for "The Storm" and "The Story of an Hour" (scroll down for Kate Chopin). Longmans Lectures, from educational publisher Pearson/Longman.

"Kate Chopin." An introduction, biography, and brief critical overview for Kate Chopin, from educational publisher Pearson Literature.

A web site on Kate Chopin includes an overview of her career, interviews with experts, and links to e-texts of her works. Web site from PBS.

"The American Novel: 1890s-1920s Naturalism." An overview of naturalism in the American novel, and some of the novelists who can be considered naturalistic. Web site from PBS.

On the Cane River and the town of Natchitoches. Also On Kate Chopin's home in Natchitoches, the largest town in the Cane River region of Louisiana, from the Cane River Heritage web site.

"Regionalism and Local Color Fiction, 1865-1895." Covers American regional literature in New England, the South, Midwest, Great Plains, and West, includes Kate Chopin. Prof. Donna Campbell's academic web site.

Scullion, Val. "Kate Chopin." An introduction to Kate Chopin from a database that provides signed literary criticism by experts in their field, and is available to individuals for a reasonably-priced subscription. Literary Encyclopedia [subscription service].

Literary Criticism

Anderson, Maureen. "Unraveling the Southern Pastoral Tradition: A New Look at Kate Chopin's At Fault." On Kate Chopin's first novel. The Southern Literary Journal 34, 1 (Fall 2001) pp 1-13 [substantial excerpt, muse].

Berkove, Lawrence L. "Fatal Self-Assertion in Kate Chopin's 'The Story of an Hour.'" American Literary Realism 32, 2 (Winter 2000) pp 152-58 [sub ser, enotes, has 35 more scholarly articles on Kate Chopin].

Bucher, Christina. "Perversely Reading Kate Chopin's 'Fedora.'" Mississippi Quarterly 56, 3 (Summer 2003) [sub ser, questia].

Bunch, Dianne. "Dangerous spending habits: The epistemology of Edna Pontellier's extravagant expenditures in The Awakening." Mississippi Quarterly 55 (2001) pp 43-61 [sub ser, questia].

Burns, Karin Garlepp. "The Paradox of Objectivity in the Realist Fiction of Edith Wharton and Kate Chopin." Journal of Narrative Theory 29, 1 (Winter 1999) pp 27-61 [first page only, muse].

Harmon, Charles. "'Abysses of solitude': Acting naturally in Vogue and The Awakening." Harmon argues that "By juxtaposing The Awakening to Vogue, it is possible to demonstrate that American culture during Chopin's era communicated a mixed yet finally overwhelmingly violent message to its women." College Literature (Fall 1998) [sub ser, highbeam].

Hoder-Salmon, Marilyn. Kate Chopin's The Awakening: Screenplay as Interpretation." (UP of Florida 1992) [sub ser, questia].

Holtman, Janet. "Failing Fictions: The Conflicting and Shifting Social Emphases of Kate Chopin's 'Local Color'" Stories. Southern Quarterly 2004 [sub ser, questia].

Llewellyn, Dara. "Reader Activation of Boundaries in Kate Chopin's 'Beyond the Bayou.'" Llewellyn contends that the concept of boundary can shed light on Kate Chopin's story "Beyond the Bayou." She remarks that the story "is about boundaries of the usual sort (physical, temporal, psychological) while it foregrounds the boundary conditions of the reader's experience." Studies in Short Fiction 33, 2 (Spring 1996) [sub ser, questia].

Mathews, Carolyn L. "Fashioning the hybrid woman in Kate Chopin's The Awakening. Mosaic 35, 3 (2002) [sub ser, enotes].

McManus, Barbara F. "Characteristics of a Feminist Approach." An excerpt from Prof. MacManus's Classics and Feminism: Gendering the Classics. Also links to other feminist criticism of literature. At Prof. McManus's web site.

Pizer, Donald. "A Note on Kate Chopin's The Awakening as Naturalistic Fiction." The Southern Literary Journal 33, 2 (Spring 2001) pp 5-13 [substantial extract, muse].

Rich, Charlotte."Reconsidering The Awakening: The literary sisterhood of Kate Chopin and George Egerton." Southern Quarterly 41, 3 (Spring 2003) [sub ser, questia].

Treu, Robert "Surviving Edna: A reading of the ending of The Awakening." College Literature Spring 2000 [sub ser, highbeam].

Wehner, David Z. "'A Lot Up For Grabs': The Idiosyncratic, Syncretic Religious Temperament of Kate Chopin." On Kate Chopin's Catholicism. American Literary Realism 43, 2 (winter 2011) pp 154-68 [substantial excerpt, muse].

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