The Awakening

This volume presents a variety of new essays on Kate Chopin's The Awakening. This classic novella, published in 1899, is considered a landmark work of early feminism. It appears in practically every anthology of American literature, and it is one of the most widely taught of all American novels. Although never technically banned, Chopin's work was strongly criticised for its depictions of female sexual desire and for featuring a protagonist who resisted social norms and traditional gender roles. This volume surveys previous criticism of the work but also offers a variety of new approaches from various critical perspectives. Essays relate the novel to such topics as race, humour, Chopin's life, impressionist painting, irony and close reading, tourism and landscapes, regionalism and naturalism, and folly and engendered discourse. Chopin's novel is compared to works by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Mark Twain, and several essays are intended to be highly accessible to students and of genuine value to teachers. Some essayists defend the novel against attacks on its artistic success and/or explain why it is worth reading at all. Contributors include such distinguished Chopin scholars as Robert Arner, Janet Beer, Thomas Bonner, Joyce Dyer, Anna Elfenbein, Bernard Koloski, Mary Papke, and Emily Toth. Rounding out the volume is a bibliography of critical sources for readers seeking to study this work in greater depth. Salem's Critical Insights series distils the best of both classic and current literary criticism of the world's most-studied literature. The series focuses on an individual author's entire body of work, on single works of literature or on a literary theme. Edited and written by some of academe's most distinguished literary scholars, Critical Insights provide authoritative, in-depth scholarship suitable for students and teachers alike.