Kate O'Flaherty was born into one of St. Louis's most prominent families. Although Kate O'Flaherty Chopin later said she was born in 1851, Emily Toth discovered during her research for her forthcoming biography of Chopin that the future writer's...

Kate Chopin introduced to the reading public a new fictional setting: the charming, somewhat isolated region along the Cane River in north central Louisiana, an area populated by Creoles, Acadians, and blacks. Beginning in the 1960s, her fiction was...

A popular local colorist during her lifetime, Katherine Chopin (1851-1904) is best known today for her psychological novel The Awakening (1899) and for such often-anthologized short stories as "Desiree's Baby" and "The Story of an Hour." Chopin was...

Apopular local colorist during her lifetime, Chopin is now recognized as an important figure in nineteenth-century American fiction and as a major figure in feminist literature. Her best-known work, The Awakening (1899), depicts a woman's search...

Kate Chopin (born Katherine O'Flaherty on February 8, 1850 – August 22, 1904) was an American author of short stories and novels, mostly of a Louisiana Creole background. She is now considered to have been a forerunner of feminist authors of the...

Today is Sunday, March 11, the 70th day of 2007. There are 295 days left in the year.Today's Highlight in History:On March 11, 1942, as Japanese forces continued to advance in the Pacific during World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur left the Philippines for Australia,...

In the following essay, McCullough attempts to show how Chopin both challenged and reinforced the status quo of Southern regional writing.

In the following essay, Gunning analyzes Chopin's works for evidence of her views on racial violence and stereotypes.

In the following essay, Wolff examines The Awakening in terms of nineteenth-century medical discourse on female sexuality.

Essay shows how her life experiences influenced her major works.

A feminist writer during a time in which women had few rights and had to submit to their husbands, Kate Chopin exhibited themes that were ahead of her time. Chopin's short story "Story of an Hour" and novel The Awakening are excellent examples of this, as she explored the themes of woman who rebel against, and become independent from, their husbands. In writing about these themes, Chopin drew upon her role models within her family, her hard life, and her education.

Kate Chopin's life resembles an archetypal theme for cultural self-definition because of family deaths, frequent moves, her writing career, and her views on society.