( 2 6 ) W o m e n W r i t e r s o f t h e T u r n o f t h e C e n t u r y
(Sarah Orne Jewett, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather)
S a r a h O r n e J e w e t t
[See Topic 15 "Regionalism..."]
Ka t e C h o p i n ( 1 8 5 1 – 1 9 0 4 )
L i f e :
-b. Katherine O’Flaherty in a St. Louis family of high social status
-the family women pious Cath. x but: herself smoked in society and walked about without company, daring acts for her time
-married a Creole businessman > New Orleans (LA) = the centre of the Creole culture
-her husband failed as a businessman, and died suddenly > St. Louis, remained alone to raise her children, and earned her living by writing
W o r k :
-< her reading of E. Zola and G. de Maupassant, admired W. Whitman’s Leaves of Grass
-< her own experience of the LA life
-author of 3 novels, over 150 short stories and sketches, poetry, and criticism
-portrayals of the Creole and Cajun life
Sh o r t St o r i e s :
-brief, almost anecdotal x but: fresh and sincere
Bayou Folk (1894):
-won her reputation as a leading local-colourist of the LA rural life
A Night in Acadie (1897):
-cemented her reputation
N o ve l s :
At Fault (1890):
-her 1st novel, publ. on her own expense
Unknown:
-her 2nd novel failed, and she destroyed it
The Awakening:
-examines the ‘new woman’s’ psychological and sexual coming to consciousness and demanding social, economic, and political equality
-contrasts the friendly, open, society loving, and articulate Creoles (Leonce, Robert) x the cold, dignified, distanced, and reserved Eur. (Edna, her father)
-Mms Reisz: lives alone, loves music, gives performances, and takes an unusual and untraditional role of a woman artist in the society = function: supports E.
-Robert: teaches E. swim = function: initiates her awakening x but: too weak to encourage her
-Arobin: provides what R. does not = function: substitutes R.
-celebrates a woman’s independence, and finds the breaking of social rules an inevitable result
-found a negative response (as W. Whitman’s Leaves of Grass half a c. earlier) x but: rediscovered by the feminists in 1960s
P o e t r y :
-themes of strong individual women facing the gender prejudice obstacles
E d i t h W h a r t o n ( 1 8 6 2 – 1 9 3 7 )
L i f e :
-b. into ‘old money’, never experienced economic deprivations (x T. Dreiser & oth. naturalists)
-educated in foreign languages and an Eur. outlook
-needed a cosmopolitan setting for her fictional needs > settled in Fr.
-married a respectable Am.: the marriage failed, her husband went insane, and she divorced
W o r k :
-a F counterpart of H. James: shares his carefully wrought style x but: adds her peculiarly own treatment of inner life, sense of cultural nuances, and indignation at the lack of social freedom
(a)a naturalist: human behaviour shaped by environment and heredity T. Dreiser, M. Twain, & oth.
(b)a small-town life chronicler: tragedies caused by the narrowing of individual aspirations S. O. Jewett, M. W. Freeman, & oth.
(c)a woman’s experience relater: women’s longings to break the bonds of society K. Chopin
(d)a critic and satirist M. Twain
The Hermit and the Wild Woman and Other Stories (1908) and Tales of Men and Ghosts (1910):
-coll. of short stories
-the latter conc. with the supernatural
The House of Mirth (1905):
-a novel conc. with an economic determinism
-a morally pure woman’s confrontation with a corrupted moral and sexuality results in her death
Ethan Fromme (1911):
-a local colour realist / naturalist tragic novel, in the MA rural setting
-a decline of Ethan’s marriage, his love triangle shared with his wife and her cousin, and his ending up in a mental and physical prison
The Custom of the Country (1913):
-a novel in the city setting
-a small town life replaced by scenes of elegant society, tragedy replaced by satire
-the eponymous custom = a divorce, used for her upward mobility by Undine Spragg a higher equivalent of T. Dreiser’s Carrie Meeber in Sister Carrie
Summer (1917):
-a novel in the New En. rural setting
-harshly bitter lives of small town people
The Age of Innocence (1920):
-a novel in the NY City setting
-the relationship of one man and 2 women and the absence of sexual freedom
-won her the Pulitzer Price
W i l l a C a t h e r
[See Topic 25 "Midwest..."]