Women and Autonomy in Kate Chopin's Short Fiction

Women and Autonomy in Kate Chopin's Short Fiction offers close readings of some thirty stories Chopin's most significant short works the majority of which have never received analytical scrutiny. These works, predominantly grim, portray the difficulties women confront as they seek autonomy in a social framework that typically constrains them whether they are married, in the midst of courtship, or seeking to live independently. This groundbreaking book makes it apparent that Chopin's short fiction is no less significant than her famous novel, The Awakening, and that her stories also provide a valuable context for that work.

Autorentext

The Author: Allen F. Stein is Professor of English at North Carolina State University. He received his Ph.D. in English from Duke University. He is the author of Cornelius Mathews and After the Vows Were Spoken: Marriage in American Literary Realism, and has published more than two dozen essays on American literature in numerous scholarly journals.