Name an event in The Awakening that may have been inspired by Chopin's actual life.
Name an event in The Awakening that may have been inspired by the state of society at the time.
How do you think the men at the time viewed Chopin's work?
How does Chopin's family situation as you expected it to be after reading the book compare to what it was in reality?
Name an event in The Awakening that may have been inspired by politics of the time.
Was the ending in any way connected to the actual events happening in America at the time?
New Historicism
Would Chopin have supported Murphy James Foster being elected governor of Louisiana?
How did The Awakening influence the time period in which it was written?
in The Awakening
The Awakening subverted all of the normal ideology surrounding women at the time of its publication. It gave women a voice, and inspired more female authors to push the boundaries of literature and societal norms.
What was happening in society when The Awakening was written?
What is New Historicism?
What was happening politically at the time?
Murphy James Foster was the governor of Louisiana at the time. He disenfranchised the black majority once he came into power.
What was happening in Kate Chopin's personal life?
Kate Chopin was in the upper class; she was a wife and a mother. She had a deep concern for women's equality and feminism.
Chopin's dad died in a railroad accident and she lived through the Civil War. Slaves lived and worked in her house.
Women were valued below men at the time. It was commonly accepted that women belonged in the house, taking care of the children and catering to their husbands.
It is a method of literary criticism that emphasizes the historicity of a text by relating it to the configurations of power, society, or ideology in a given time.
How does New Historicism relate to The Awakening?
The Awakening can be viewed in the context of the societal issues, political issues, and personal issues of Kate Chopin at the time the book was written and published.