The function of adultery, contract and female identity in Kate Chopin's 'The Awakening'
-
- Englisch ausgewählt
15,95 €
inkl. gesetzl. MwSt.,
Beschreibung
Produktdetails
Einband
Taschenbuch
Erscheinungsdatum
15.09.2008
Verlag
GRINSeitenzahl
20
Maße (L/B/H)
21/14,8/0,2 cm
Gewicht
45 g
Auflage
2. Auflage
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN
978-3-640-16608-4
Seminar paper from the year 1999 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Cologne, language: English, abstract: In Kate Chopin's The Awakening, sexuality, love and marriage are negotiated in connection with the problem of a uniquely female identity which defies the ideas of Victorian prudery and seeks to represent the "new woman". But what precisely is the nature of Edna's awakening? Does the novel really convey a feminist tenor, and does Chopin succeed in exploring new cul¬tural and social options in the sphere of fiction? Three major aspects have to be analysed to il¬luminate this matter, namely adultery, the notion of contract and the question of a female iden¬tity, all of which are directly linked to the organization and stability of society in general and in American society by the end of the nineteenth century in particular. Considering the ubi¬quity of adultery - seen as a transgression against the marriage contract - in nineteenth-century novels, Tony Tanner postulates "relationships between a specific kind of sexual act, a specific kind of society, and a specific kind of narrative" (1979: 12), all of which here imply a defini¬tion of woman's role on a social scale. As far as The Awakening is concerned, however, the case is far from clear because society's ideological hegemony is significantly diminished, though at no point relinquished. It is proble¬matic to speak of Edna's sexual liberation and emancipation for two reasons: firstly, there are no restrictive measures or even social sanctions like ostracism, and secondly, the ending is too ambivalent to interpret it from an exclusively feminist perspective. Nevertheless, Showalter is certainly correct in asserting that "Chopin went boldly beyond the work of her precursors in writing about women's longing for sexual and personal emancipation"(1993: 170); contempo¬rary reviews and the reception history as a whole supply sufficient evidence of this as well as of the thesis that "Chopin calls into question the ideologies and assumptions about women's place articulated by leading thinkers of her time" (Bauer/ Lakritz 1988: 47). But the text is neither a tract nor a pamphlet; it is an aesthetically composed novel which works quite differ¬ently due to its fictional status. This paper tries to clarify the complex set of ideas and tech¬niques that operate on the fictional level and is, moreover, designed to show their social and cultural relevance in the context of Kate Chopin's epoch while taking into account several approaches to the text.
Ein neues Kapitel für Ihre Bücher
Ein neues Kapitel für Ihre Bücher
Schenken Sie Ihren alten Schätzen ein zweites Leben und erhalten dafür eine Thalia Geschenkkarte.
Noch keine Bewertungen vorhanden
Verfassen Sie die erste Bewertung zu diesem Artikel
Helfen Sie anderen Kundinnen und Kunden durch Ihre Meinung.
Kurze Frage zu unserer Seite
Vielen Dank für Ihr Feedback
Wir nutzen Ihr Feedback, um unsere Produktseiten zu verbessern. Bitte haben Sie Verständnis, dass wir Ihnen keine Rückmeldung geben können. Falls Sie Kontakt mit uns aufnehmen möchten, können Sie sich aber gerne an unseren Kund*innenservice wenden.
zum Kundenservice