Kate Chopin (1968- )
Sentimental novel F 0
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presence of female novelists
Writing was for her a therapy, specially when her husband died
Her children died very young F 0
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caused her a big suffer
New learns
Biographical details:
• Born in Saint Louis (Missouri, a southern State), constant southern presence in
her writing
• French mother & Irish father F0
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she spoke French fluently
• Died in Saint Louis
• Catholic education makes her to obey strict rules
• Catholic morals always present in her fiction. This Catholic influence makes her
a repressed author.
• At the age of 19 she moved with her husband to New Orleans (a city which
appears in her fiction)
Musical knowledge influenced her style F 0
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musical rhythm
Realism & Naturalism F 0
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a realist writer (came from her own experience), an alternative
to the sentimental novel, which was very popular at that time
She was very idealistic; it is impossible to transmit through words the whole reality.
Obsession F 0
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Go beyond any kind of limitation of Social conventions, social order,
female independence. This fact makes her an original writer (pre-modernist writer as
well)
Influences: Emily & Charlotte Broads (3 sisters)
Dartmund, the English novelist (Victorian)
Darwin
Spencer
“Doctor Gossip” (1st published in 1899, a hostile reception in its beginnings)
50 years later, her works catch the public audience
She began as a short-story writer
Purpose F 0
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Self-discovery, to explore her own mind
First published in magazines
Themes in her stories F0
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controversial (sexual topics, financial topics, questioning the
emotional independence of women from men). This fact made her a complete different
writer from the rest.
Metaphors and symbols are everywhere in her writings
Economy & clarity of language
Use of irony, sometimes explicit irony
Ability to capture the intonation of dialects (specially the ones from New Orleans)
Criol (criollos), a dialect which combines French and English languages (New Orleans
was a French colony in its origins)
Liberation of style F0
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self-free
She wrote for the American audience
No idealized marriages or families F 0
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miseries (a pessimistic view)
Symbolism, sensuality or erotic symbols
She was considered by the critics of that time “a writer of great refinement and taste”
She writes about common people
“The Awakening”
• use of theatrical techniques, characters as they were in the scenario (the scenario
is the city as such)
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