Writing

After publishing The Awakening in 1899, Chopin never published again as she was left to reckon with the sins of her characters. Yet The Awakening is often taught as a rediscovered novel rather than a novel of its time. This teaching prioritizes the novel's place in the 1950’s and 1960’s feminist literary movement but ignores the novel's original critical reception at the turn of the century. Although it is significant that this novel fell out of print and did not receive a second edition until 1964 (exactly 60 years after Chopin’s death), this approach forgets the dangerous and disruptive nature of The Awakening in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Teaching this novel as a forward-thinking work of fiction can help fully contextualize its power and danger. This paper argues that through the dangerous representation of women figures, Chopin creates new territory for women writers. In this paper, I address stereotypes of women as presented in the novel by arguing Chopin creates the role of republican mother as presented in the character Adele Ratignolle, the figure of the new woman as presented in Mademoiselle Reisz, and the failure of the cult of true womanhood presented in the protagonist, Edna Pontellier. This is a particularly subversive move because Chopin not only works within multiple figurations of women and mothers, but she also uses each character to nuance the models of womanhood at the turn of the century. Teaching the novel through its 1899 context and reception illuminates the new models of woman as created by Chopin.

Quinn Moyer

Dr. Sarah Wright

ENGL 500

23 October 2023

Aims & Methods Annotated Bibliography 

Working thesis: I argue that teaching The Awakening as a forward-thinking work of fiction can help fully contextualize its power and danger. In this paper, I address stereotypes of women as presented in the novel by arguing Chopin creates the role of republican mother as presented in the character Adele Ratignolle, the figure of the new woman as presented in Mademoiselle Reisz, and the failure of the cult of true womanhood presented in the protagonist, Edna Pontellier.

Barst, Julie M. "Pedagogical Approaches to Diversity in the English Classroom: A Case Study of

Global Feminist Literature." Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture 13.1 (2013): 149-157.

         Barst’s article on pedagogical approaches to diverse literature begins with some of the problems she has encountered when teaching. She explains issues she has faced particularly when using the word “diverse” and how certain terminology can turn students away from a text. Then, she presents her argument. The goal of this paper as I see it is twofold; first, it advocates for teaching the novel Home and secondly it discusses pedagogical approaches Barst uses with that novel and how they transfer to other kinds of diverse feminist literature. Barst then goes on to cover multiple different pedagogical strategies she utilizes. Her units surrounding controversial literature begin with an “interrogation” of the term diversity. She asks her students to define this term then pushes them to go beyond a traditional definition to think about impact. She then argues for historical context when teaching diverse literature. Barst also argues for presenting relevant biographical details to students. She also brings in historical touchpoints including poetry and visual arts to contextualize the work. Most importantly, she argues for “crafting writing and discussion…that ask students to think carefully about issues raised in the text” (154).  Most of her time is spent here as she describes multiple assignments in depth that help her foster these conversations. The paper concludes thinking about the impact this type of learning has on students and encourages other educators to think about these teaching methods. I think this article will be useful when thinking about how I argue for historical context. I know that historical context is nothing new in the classroom so I have to find nuance in the way I am presenting my argument.

LeBlanc, Elizabeth. "The Metaphorical Lesbian: Edna Pontellier in The Awakening." Tulsa

Studies in Women's Literature 15.2 (1996): 289-307.

Elizabeth LeBlanc begins her text with a combination of book reviews all of which consider Edna Pontellier’s sexuality. LeBlanc presents Edna as a character who reaches beyond traditions of family structure and male-female love. LeBlanc’s argument presents Edna Pontellier as a “metaphorical lesbian.” Meaning, Edna is a character that embodies some of the characteristics and thoughts of the traditional definition of lesbian, but she does not act on these traits. LeBlanc then argues that the sea is a feminine force, without being a woman. Therefore, the sea is the only suitable partner for Edna. In this, LeBlanc reframes Edna’s suicide as a pairing with a female lover of which Chopin would not have been able to write otherwise. While I agree with LeBlanc that there is not a partner for Edna as presented in the text, I think a lesbian reading of Edna limits the true inquisitive nature of her sexuality and sensuality in the text. I plan to use this argument to frame my connection to the sea as lover in the text, but I will dispute that the sea can only be presented as a feminine figuration.

Lorde, Audre. "The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power." The Lesbian and Gay Studies

Reader (1993): 339-343.

         Lorde begins this piece by defining the erotic as power that exists within a spiritual and feminine place. She challenges a fully sexualized definition of the erotic and defines it as a force of change. Audre Lorde discusses how women can utilize the erotic as power and how the erotic is often a suppressed force. Lorde then suggests that the erotic is a power that arose because of oppression and can be used to fight oppression through the creation of arts and other innovations. Lorde then discusses exactly how the erotic has been used against women in the past using models such as the hospitalization of “hysterical” women and violence as perpetrated through pornography. Lorde then makes the move to persuade women to better understand and develop the erotic as a source of power. She continues by arguing that the effective use of the erotic can invite self-empowerment, self-awareness, inner-strength, and autonomy. Lorde concludes her piece by discussing the collective power as held in the erotic. Her final action asks that women use the erotic to fight a “racist, patriarchal, and anti-erotic society.” I am planning on using this paper in my definition of the sea as an erotic force. In presenting the sea as a force that is not over-sexualized but in fact a source of power for Edna opens the many ways in which Edna can be perceived. I want the sea to become a larger part of my paper as I am focusing on students’ reaction to the text and to the women in the text. The ocean is a seductive force for the women of the text and if the ocean can be understood in non-traditional ways, maybe the women can as well.

Rossetti, Gina M. “Back to School: Pedagogical Pitfalls and Innovations in Teaching Chopin’s

The Awakening.” ALN: The American Literary Naturalism Newsletter, vol. 3, no. 1–2, 2008, pp. 12–16.

         Rossetti begins this paper by contextualizing The Awakening as part of American realist fiction. She explores her teaching of this text in realism courses and notes that historical connections to other novels was not working on her students. This paper argues that students dislike of Edna Pontellier clouded their judgment of the text. She also argues that it was not enough for her to place the book within the movement of American realism as the students still saw the problems of Edna Pontellier as shallow. After talking with colleagues, Rossetti took on a reader-response approach to the novel. She asked students to connect their personal life and problems to those of Edna Pontellier through personal journals, group reflections, and writing projects. This method of personalization worked to help her students get over the roadblock of disliking The Awakening, but it was  only partially successful in helping them get over their dislike of Edna Pontellier. Rossetti noted that students still saw Edna’s ennui as unworthy, and they felt particular disgust toward Chopin’s version of motherhood as selfish. Overall, Rossetti saw improvement when asking students to frame their contemporary experiences around displeasure in their own lives and connect them to Edna. This improvement came in the form of deeper analysis of the text in discussion as well as in their writing beyond a general like or dislike of the text and the characters. This paper helped me frame the nuance of my argument as Rossetti claims that historically situating The Awakening within American realism was not particularly effective. My argument is framed around historical representations of women and mothers which should also help somewhat tackle the difficult depiction of Edna as a selfish mother.

Streater, Kathleen M. "Adèle Ratignolle: Kate Chopin's feminist at home in the awakening." The

Midwest Quarterly 48.3 (2007): 406.

Kathleen Streater begins her paper by discussing the blatant feminism of Edna Pontellier in The Awakening. She continues by arguing scholarship on the novella has often overlooked the feminism of Adele Ratignolle and posits Adele as a “feminist at home.” Her argument continues as she discusses the future as presented in the novel, considering Adele as the character that creates a livable version of womanhood. Streater’s paper considers the many ways in which Adele Ratignolle navigates the domestic sphere in order to benefit her personal position. Streater mentions specifically the way in which Adele navigates pregnancy and motherhood in the novel as non-traditional. This is particularly interesting as Streater frames Adele as not in opposition to Edna but as a different type of feminist instead. This essay ends as Streater analyzes Edna’s swim to the death. Streater claims that Edna, in her death, becomes an unattainable figure in which the reader is left to view Adele as the only realistic woman and mother. This paper will be important as I plan to challenge the view of Edna as a bad mother within the text and within the student's perspective of the novel. When the figure of Adele as an angelic mother-woman gets broken down, it allows for students to view Edna with more grace and nuance. It also opens a conversation of working within the realm of possibility, particularly considering the ways in which women can exhibit power under patriarchy and how that was happening at the turn of the century.

Toth, Emily. “The I Hate Edna Club.” Kate Chopin in Context: New Approaches, edited by Kate

O’Donoghue and Heather Ostman, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, pp. 118-22.

This short text by Emily Toth, one of the foremost Chopin scholars, outlines the responses of her students to the novel The Awakening over many years. She spends most of her time analyzing her readers' reactions to the protagonist, Edna Pontellier. Toth begins the article by presenting and defining Ednaphobia which she defines as a fear and hatred of Edna Pontellier. Of the many places and times Toth has taught the novel, she came to find and synthesize eight main issues her students have had with the text. The list is as follows: (1) viewing Edna as a cautionary tale, (2) Edna’s racial and class privilege, (3) her housing privilege, (4) Edna’s inability to take action/laziness, (5) “she’s a ‘slut,’” (6) she cannot succeed in romance, (7) she’s a bad role model, (8) finally and most importantly she is a bad mother. These hatreds toward the protagonist influence Toth’s reaction to the novel as a whole and to the author. Toth’s teachings of the novel span around 40 years and her students' reactions change to reflect the time in which they inhabit as they interact with the text. Toth finished the article with her love for the character and the contradictory passions she finds in the hatreds of her students. I think Toth’s article will be particularly impactful in my own work as I think of the many reasons in which students find issues with the text. It also pushes me to consider how my solution interacts differently with each of these forms of dislike.

Quinn Moyer

Dr. Sarah Wright

ENGL 500

27 November 2023

“Selfish, Capricious” Women:  Teaching The Awakening as a Historically Dangerous Novel

After publishing The Awakening in 1899, Kate Chopin never published again as she was left to reckon with the sins of her characters. The Awakening’s protagonist, Edna Pontellier, is a famously hated woman in literature. There are a multitude book reviews, academic papers, and social media posts that identify Edna as troublesome. These comments span over 120 years. An 1899 example, as reviewed in the Pittsburgh Leader by Willa Cather reads:

I shall not attempt to say why Miss Chopin devoted so exquisite and sensitive, well-governed a style to so trite and sordid a theme… “Edna Pontellier” and “Emma Bovary” are studies in the same feminine type…Both women belong to a class, not large, but forever clamoring in our ears, that demands more romance out of life than God put into it…These people really expect the passion of love to fill and gratify every need of life, whereas nature only intended that it should meet one of many demands… Nobody ever cheats them, really. Then “the awakening” comes. Sometimes it comes in the form of arsenic, as it came to “Emma Bovary,” ... “Edna Pontellier,” fanciful and romantic to the last, chose the sea on a summer night and went down with the sound of her first lover’s spurs in her ears, and the scent of pinks about her. And next time I hope that Miss Chopin will devote that flexible, iridescent style of hers to a better cause.

The novel’s original critical reception is cruel. Cather chastises Chopin for her choice of subject and representation of women and history continues to punish Chopin for her choice of heroine. Emily Toth’s 1999 article, “The I Hate Edna Club” names 8 reasons why students detest and distrust Edna. Of the many places and times Toth has taught the novel, she synthesizes these eight as: (1) students view Edna as a cautionary tale, (2) Edna’s racial and class privilege, (3) her housing privilege, (4) Edna’s inability to take action or her laziness, (5) “she’s a ‘slut,’” (6) she cannot succeed in romance, (7) she’s a bad role model, and finally and most importantly (8) she is a bad mother.

Most recently, a reddit thread from 2019-2022 entitled “Anyone Else Hate The Awakening” reads “Edna seems like a spoiled ungrateful brat to be honest. So what she had a slightly crappy husband, she was doing fine. I get the whole independence thing but wanting to sleep around all the time (don't we all) and fall in love with 2 other guys than your husband and then proceed to commit suicide is not exactly doing anything for that movement” (Reddit). The comments that follow include a few defenses of the novel which I very much appreciated.  They also contained comments such as “I find the book quite hypocritical. Edna wants a better life, but her response is laziness and surrender to her animalistic desires. Rather than talk about her feelings, Edna shuts down and commits suicide.”, Another comment reads “There is definitely something off-putting about her.”; and the bluntest comment reads “I want to kill that bitch edna.” While the language and form of the reviews change, the subject matter remains. Readers struggle to connect with the novel because Edna Pontellier is a challenging character. Yet, this novel is taught in high schools and colleges across the country.

Here, it is important to note that The Awakening is a rediscovered text. The novel fell out of print shortly after its publication and was not recovered until the late 1950’s.  Kate Chopin died just five years after publishing The Awakening, and even in death, the novel haunted her. One of her obituaries honored her legacy as a writer and her controversial writing.  The obituary “offered the consolation that The Awakening didn’t ‘overshadow’ her better work.” Again, Chopin is noted for her impressive writing style and taunted for her “sordid and trite” subject. The consensus around The Awakening is that it is a novel to be forgotten. Yet the novel was not overlooked; it is the one work of Chopin’s that has secured its place in the American canon.

Given all of this, how can we both read and teach The Awakening in a way that moves past a bothered reader’s reaction to a reading that is willing to dig deeply into the text and the historically feminist context of the novel? While I do not expect to change my students' dislike of a famously detestable character, I do want to remove the roadblock that is hating Edna Pontellier, and often in turn Kate Chopin, and ask students to fully explore the historical situation in which novel exists, with a particular focus on women. In this paper, I address stereotypes of women as presented in the novel by arguing Chopin creates the failure of the cult of true womanhood presented in the protagonist, Edna Pontellier. Understanding the figure of true womanhood invites students to see the constraints of Edna’s life. I argue by teaching The Awakening as a dangerous novel that creates a new territory for woman, students can critically examine the historical position of women and delve into the details of the novel. In order for The Awakening to be fully comprehended, its dangerous presence in 1899 needs to be further explored in the literature classroom.

The cult of true womanhood dominated nineteenth century womanhood and influenced Chopin’s perception and creation of her female characters. In most of the nineteenth century, women were made to be the moral compass of not only her household, but her country. To be a true woman was to be an ideal woman. Barbara Welter defines a true woman by her characteristics: “the attributes of a True Woman, by which a woman judged herself and was judged by her husband, her neighbors, and her society could be divided into four cardinal virtues -- piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. Put them all together they spelled mother, daughter, sister, wife -- woman” (Welter 152). America during the nineteenth century also operated under separate spheres, where men dominated the public sphere and women were made to control the private sphere--except, of course, for when they marry and should submit to all the wants and needs of their husbands. In marriage, under the law the couple becomes one. Women, in marriage, lost themselves and became tethered to the wants of their husbands. The only space in which women might hold any influence was within the domestic sphere. That influence, however small, was used to guide the morals of their husband and children. It is believed that any deviance from societal ideals is the fault of the wife as she is the moral center of the household and the country. Women are most important in their position as wife and mother.

Women who could not obtain or uphold an ideal domestic life, were forced to find ways of survival which still upheld their social status. One job that was suitable for women was that of author as women themselves never needed to exit their sphere in order to write, even if their work did.  For women to be published at all, their novels were required to conform to sentimentalism, which is a form True Womanhood. The publishing of The Awakening is feat in and of itself. Had Chopin’s style varied or if the novel was not able to be masked as tragic sentimentalism, we likely would not have this canonical text. Yet original reviewers of The Awakening read past this false sentimentalism, marking the novel as unfeminine and unlikeable.

   Edna Pontellier’s’ challenge in The Awakening is to navigate life while dealing with the oppressions brought on by true womanhood. While Edna Pontellier does not easily fit into any nineteenth or twentieth century figuration of woman, she is influenced by the cult of true womanhood. Edna marries young and has children. For many years, she allowed her character to be judged upon the character of her husband and children. All of this leads to Edna being a true woman yet, Edna does not feel the natural or inherent pleasure in motherhood and the beauty womanhood assumed of all true women. For much of her life, Edna Pontellier performed as the true woman because she could not imagine another life for herself. Too, Edna struggles to find the language to express the tension she feels as she does not meet the expectations of womanhood that have come before her. Chopin creates a failing true woman as Edna fails in both her truth and her performance. Edna Pontellier is often read as hysterical as she abandons what was assumed to be a perfect and privileged life.

Readers historically find issue with Edna’s selfishness as a mother. Chopin writes, Edna “was fond of her children in an uneven, impulsive way. She would sometimes gather them passionately to her heart; she would sometimes forget them. The year before they had spent part of the summer with their grandmother …Their absence was a sort of relief, though she did not admit this, even to herself. It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed and for which Fate had not fitted her” (Chopin 32). When away from her children, Edna feels a sort of freedom, yet Edna certainly loves her children. Her love is conditional and almost forgettable, as if she can be swept away into any new interest. As Chopin begins to imagine a woman with agency, she cannot uphold societal expectations of motherhood. In examining the expectations of mothers within true womanhood, Barbara Welter writes, “a true woman naturally loved her children; to suggest otherwise was monstrous” (71). Edna Pontellier’s love of her children, then, is monstruous. Chopin’s novel becomes quite controversial because society historically and currently sees motherhood as women’s main position. Chopin creates and centers a woman, Edna, who is not inherently thriving in her motherhood and thereby exposes the fallacies of true womanhood.  Therefore, Edna Pontellier is ultimately not a true woman, making the novel that features her controversial.

As stated, Edna is often made out as a hysterical woman that is unsatisfied and chooses to take her own life.  Chopin’s description of the sea as “sensual,” “seductive,” and “never ceasing” seem to be more examples of Edna Pontellier slowly slipping into madness. Yet, Edna’s final swim is not tragic. While she fails to be a true woman, here she succeeds in gratifying her own desire. She is not mad or sick; she exists in an oppressive world that is unwilling to make space for the life Edna requires. The models of femininity that are presented in Edna’s world are not attainable for her as she is not willing to give up her “essential” selfhood. Edna lacks the language to describe her desires while also being uncertain of where her journey will end. Edna’s final action is one of exploration and eroticism. She is exploring the ocean; She wants to know if her desire can be matched. The sensuous pull of the sea allowed for Edna to finalize her awakening. In doing this, Chopin kills her fallen woman but even this is not enough to save the novel from judgement.

Much of what I have just presented are reasons why our students take issue with Chopin’s writing and Edna Pontellier. They find her call to the sea desperate; they villainize her lack of attention to her children. To the surface level reader, Edna is an all-together selfish and detestable woman. While I am a lover of famously detestable women in literature, I too found myself confused by Edna on my first read of the novel. Contemporary students envy Edna’s seemingly comfortable position and interpret her concerns and worries as unimportant. Rightfully so, especially if these students are reading the novel in a 1960’s context when the text was rediscovered.

While some of these comments, especially regarding her financial and racial privilege hold merit, it is considerably more dangerous for an 1899 Southern woman to engage in affairs, feel neutral toward her children, and realize herself as separate from her domestic life than our students now. So, how does teaching The Awakening’s original context illuminate the dangerous nature of the novel? While Edna’s concerns are certainly different and likely less important than what many of our students are struggling with, her oppression is much deeper than it seems on the surface. The world Chopin created for her women felt exciting upon its rediscovery 50 years after publication. The true stir it created in 1899, when fictional depictions of women written by women were incredibly limited, illuminates avenues for further exploration. In presenting Edna as a failed true woman, Chopin created a dangerously feminist future, in which women might exist outside of the rather limited stereotypes of women at the turn of the century.

     For students, ideas of danger and futurity can become exciting forces, re-engaging their interest in literature. In the so-called dying field that is literary studies, we are seeing the need to meet our students halfway especially as we reckon with the “post-covid” college classroom. In order for The Awakening to be fully comprehended, it’s dangerous presence in 1899 needs to be further explored in the literature classroom. While The Awakening may no longer feel like a dangerous novel to carry, its history allows us to think further about the danger of literature generally. I plan to teach The Awakening first by introducing the book reviews surrounding the texts, including some of which I have read to you. Framing this novel through its reviews gives students permission to dislike a character while asking students to push past this point of view. Even Willa Cather could not help but mention Chopin’s talent as a writer while noting she did not appreciate Miss Chopin’s choice of subject. In the classroom, time will be dedicated to the novels three main women, Adele Ratignolle, Mme. Reisz, along with Edna Pontellier. I will also present my students with the historical context of women, asking them to write about the true woman, the new woman, and the republican mother specifically in their reading journals.

         Too, the unit on The Awakening, as taught in a writing about literature class, will end with a book review assignment. The assignment may take on two forms, a contemporary or historical review of The Awakening. This assignment asks students to be both personal and critical about the novel. The student learning outcomes addressed in this assignment are as follows:

a) … engaging in close, contextual, critical reading of literary texts.

b) … recognizing that there are multiple disciplinary lenses for the analysis of primary materials such as literature.

c) … practicing writing like a literary scholar as a means of developing rhetorical awareness about how experts in specific disciplines write in different ways.

d) … accurately interpreting and representing the views of others through careful critical reading and writing.

To be clear, the purpose of this assignment does not ask my students to reclaim Edna themselves or even like her. This assignment asks my students to think in multiple contexts about the novel, identify many arguments that have been made about the text both historically and contemporarily, form their own opinion about the text, and use this information to make an argument. The book review assignment invites close reading of their own work from reading journals, the primary text, and many secondary sources in the form of book reviews, social media postings, and journal articles. This assignment also asks students to create and maintain an argument larger than like or dislike because this assignment must take place in a certain context of the students choosing. While this paper primarily focuses on Edna Pontellier, students will be invited to discuss the figure of the true woman, the republican mother, and/or the new woman alongside the other women presented in The Awakening.

         The Awakening’s women all rebel against patriarchal expectations of women at the turn of the century. Teaching The Awakening within its 1899 context with a focus on the historical positionings of women invites a broader understanding of the text. As our students struggle to connect to the literature we are teaching, The Awakening can open a door for our students to think about power and impact. This quick novella asks readers to question the contexts in which they exist. The history surrounding the banning of this text invites students to think about the power of dangerous literature and the importance of storytelling. If my students walk away from my class hating Edna Pontellier but having challenged themselves to think about story and power and produce a writing that reflects this thinking, my mission will have been accomplished.

Works Cited

Cather, Willa. “Kate Chopin.” The Pittsburgh Leader. Jan. 1899

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Edited by Sui Mon Wu, Barnes & Noble, Inc., 1997.

Kerber, Linda K. Women of the Republic, Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America. The

University of North Carolina Press, 1980.

Toth, Emily. “The I Hate Edna Club.” Kate Chopin in Context: New Approaches, edited by Kate

O’Donoghue and Heather Ostman, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, pp. 118-22.

U/Bo_Seifrit. “Anyone Else Hate the Awakening?” Reddit,

www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/csagv2/anyone_else_hate_the_awakening/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2023.

Welter, Barbara. "The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860." American Quarterly, 18.2 (1966):

151-174.

Forthcoming