ENG 209: The development of the short story as a literary form. Reading, discussion, and analysis of short stories by major writers such as Chekhov, Gilman, Joyce, Hemingway, Wright, O'Connor, Baldwin, Carver, Oates, and others, in relation to their social and intellectual milieu. Class hrs. 3. Prerequisites: ENG 101, 102 (Comp & Lit I & II).
This class will be conducted in accordance with WCC's Student Code of Conduct and Academic Honesty Policy:
Cheating, plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated under any circumstances.
WCC’s Academic Honesty Policy is available online at:
An Introduction to Fiction (Eleventh Edition), by X. J. Kennedy and Dana Giola
ISBN 10: 0-20568788-1
ISBN 13: 978-0-205-68788-6
When Kate Chopin's book The Awakening was published in 1899, critics were so outraged by her "candid portrait of a woman who seeks sexual and professional independence" that her books were banned and she could no longer find a publisher willing to publish her writings.
ReplyDeleteIn 1870, at the age of 20, she married Oscar Chopin and settled in New Orleans. Chopin had all six of her children by 28. In 1879 Oscar Chopin's cotton brokerage failed, and the family moved to Cloutierville in south Natchitoches Parish to manage several small plantations and a general store. They became active in the community, and Chopin absorbed much material for her future writing, especially regarding the Creole culture of the area. Their home was a national historic landmark and the home of the Bayou Folk Museum. On October 1, 2008, the house was destroyed by a fire, with little left but the chimney.
ReplyDeleteThere has been much confusion about when Kate Chopin was born. Her tombstone says 1851, but thirty years ago a French scholar revealed that the United States census and her baptismal certificate showed that she was born on February 8, 1850. No formal birth certificate has been found. In September of 2009, the Library of Congress accepted the corrected date. Some printed sources and web sites still give her birth date as 1851.
ReplyDeleteThere has been much confusion about when Kate Chopin was born. Her tombstone says 1851, but thirty years ago a French scholar revealed that the United States census and her baptismal certificate showed that she was born on February 8, 1850. No birth certificate has been found. In September of 2009, the Library of Congress accepted the corrected date. Some printed sources and web sites still give her birth date as 1851.
ReplyDeleteKate began writing seriously after suffering the loss of both her husband and her mother. She used writing as a form of therapy, a way to alleviate the weight of sadness and stress she was suffering at the time. Also, she was left alone after the death of her husband and was in need of a source of primary income. Oddly, it was her obstetrician and family friend Dr. Frederick Kolbenheyer who put her on to the idea. He saw how other successful authors were able to benefit both emotionally and mentally, as well as financially, from writing and hoped that Kate would be able to do the same.
ReplyDeleteHer first novel, At Fault, was published in 1890, followed by two collections of her short stories, Bayou Folk in 1894 and A Night in Acadia in 1897. The Awakening was published in 1899, and by then she was well known as both a local colorist and a woman writer, and had published over one hundred stories, essays, and sketches in literary magazines.
ReplyDeleteIn 1969 a biography was published sensitive to "The Awakening", Kate Chopin became known throughout the world. Her work has been translated into other languages such as French, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Korean, and Czech.
ReplyDeleteKate Chopin's short stories have appeared in VOGUE, starting with "Desiree's Baby" in January, 1893. All in all, Kate had published 19 stories with the magazine. She was praised for both her beauty and brains.
ReplyDeleteKate Chopin was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1850. She was the third of five children. Her sisters died at infancy and her brothers in there early twenties. She was the only child of Eliza and Thomas O'Flaherty that lived passed twenty-five.
ReplyDeleteOn November 1, 1855 her father died in a train accident and was then raised by only her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Her great grandmother, Victoria Verdon Charleville home schooled her because she oversaw education. She taught Kate through vivid French stories and allowed Kate to feel for a taste of the culture and freedom, which the French approved of, but the Americans disapproved of.
It is said that Kate's grandmother had an influence on Kate's literature in which we see some of the common themes that Kate's grandmother taught Kate through story-telling in Kate's own work.
Kate Chopin was five and a half when she was sent to The Sacred Heart Academy Catholic Boarding School in St. Louis. Her father was killed two months later so she went back home for the next two years with her mother and all the widows. She returned to the Sacred Heart Academy, where the nuns were known for their intelligence, and was top of her class.She grew up during the Civil War and this caused her to be separated from the one friend she had made at the Sacred Heart Academy, Kitty Garesche
ReplyDeleteKate Chopin had a penchant for writing female characters who were atypical for the time. They had individual wants and needs, and demonstrated Chopin's passionate belief that women were strong and independent. Her belief in the independent woman is showcased in "The Story of an Hour" - when after the death of the main character Louise Mallard's husband, the newly widowed woman exclaims "Free! Free! Free!".
ReplyDeleteThanks, everybody, for your interesting and informative comments. I hope you're looking forward to meeting Kate Chopin tomorrow, when we read "The Story of an Hour."
ReplyDeleteNot many writers during the mid to late 19th century were bold enough to address subjects that Chopin willingly took on. Although David Chopin, her grandson, claims "Kate was neither a feminist nor a suffragist. She was nonetheless a woman who took women extremely seriously. She never doubted women's ability to be strong". Despite this fact, there is no question regarding where Kate Chopin's sympathies lay: with the individual in the context of his and her personal life and society.
ReplyDelete