Kate Chopin
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Major Issues Major IssuesFeminist historians and feminist literary critics have found much of interest in both Chopin’s fiction and the contemporary social and critical response to that fiction. Chopin’s unflinching, non-moralistic treatment of women’s sexuality shocked turn of the 20th century readers and reviewers. She suffered both literary and social condemnation. The resulting censorship of her work has been compared to the similarly controversial reception of D. H. Lawrence’s writing. Chopin’s portrayal of guiltless, consequence-free adultery still surprises readers a century later, although her critique of gendered power relationships no longer seems radical. Chopin has also been studied as an important Louisiana regionalist writer, who captures the dialect, landscape, and social culture of her Creole and Cajun characters. Author Links Ahead
of Her Time
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