"Unveiling Kate Chopin/Subverting the French Androcentric Influence"

Charles So

English 48B

March 3, 2011

Journal for Writings on Chopin

Author Quote:

"Unveiling Kate Chopin uncovers the inner life of a courageous woman who, a century ago, was a solitary soul, a tough and resilient character who had opinions and who dared and defied." (Intro. Unveiling)

Author Quote:

"Chopin's uniqueness as a woman writer, at its best, speaks out well beyond the French influence and it is a voice which is strikingly female. The French male form and style she adopts from Maupassant are adapted to suit her own purpose, to explore a position unique to woman. She exerts literary individuality and originality and, ultimately, speaks in a truly feminist voice."

"The male protagonists central to his stories are "...bitter about women and love, and are suffused by a general misanthropy and more specific misogyny" (Taylor p.160). His perspective is clearly androcentric and it is precisely this male vision of the world that Chopin writes against, shifting women from object to subject. She explores and articulates what she saw in life for women, and in doing so, subverts the very male French tradition from within which she herself writes, feminist-ising rather than simply feminising the model of male form and style.( para. 5 Subverting)

Summary:

In Unveiling Kate Chopin the first few pages gives a intriguing detailed history of Chopin's family history. In the first chapter there is great emphasis on Chopin's complex childhood including the arrangement of her parents. In the essay "Kate Chopin as Feminist" the entire writing brought new incite to Chopin's creative background and inspiration (Mauspassant), and how through her own evolution she restructured Maupassant's style and perspective to uniquely fit into her own feminist approach

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Personal Opinion:
The biography said that Chopin didn't mention much about her childhood, this might be because it was not a pleasant upbringing for her and she probably rather not talk about it. In Jane Le Marquand's essay she makes clear points on how the works of Maupassant was strongly noticeable in Chopin's early works such as in "Her Letters," but through Chopin's own uniqueness, she altered the style in which she gathered from Maupassant and gave it more of a feminist angle. According to Wikipedia Henri Rene Guy De Maupassant was one of the fathers of short stories and according to the essay from Marquand many of Maupassant's stories depicted women as nothing more than possessions and objects for man, from this, i wonder if his distinction is another example of the patriarchal power of man that awards a writer that lowers women in its generalization.