In a career that lasted little more than a decade, Kate Chopin became well-known for stories set in the Creole and Acadian regions of Louisiana, but her masterwork, The Awakening (1899), told the daring story of a woman who defied social and sexual conventions, eliciting negative reviews that denied Chopin prominence until the middle of the twentieth century. Kate Chopin: A Literary Life sets the author in the context of nineteenth-century American women writers to show how standards of literary propriety affected the career of a major American writer.

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Autorentext
NANCY WALKER is Professor of English at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.

Zusammenfassung
"The Awakening", the story of a woman who defied social and sexual conventions, elicited negative reviews, denying Chopin prominence until the mid-20th century. This study sets her in the context of 19th-century American women writers to show how standards of literary propriety affected her career.

Inhalt
List of Abbreviations Chronology of Chopin's Life The Context of a Literary Life St Louis to Louisiana and Back The Early Stories and At Fault 'Local Color' Literature and A Night in Acadie The Awakening and the Limits of Propriety 1900-1904 Further Reading Index