Major Literary Figures: Kate Chopin The Awakening and Its Contexts ENGL A479:051/ G479:001 Fall 2009 Wednesdays 6:20 p.m--9:00 p.m. Dr. Barbara C. Ewell Loyola University New Orleans

Though almost lost from the American literary canon in the fifty years following her death in 1904, Kate Chopin is now one of the most highly regarded (and most often read) authors of the late nineteenth century. While her 1899 novel, The Awakening, is well-known, her other fiction, including another novel and nearly one hundred short stories, are not so familiar. Moreover, Chopin inhabited historical and literary contexts that a century later are simillarly unfamiliar to many readers. This course will thus explore those contexts, both Chopin's own impressive oeuvre--short stories, poems, novels, essays--as well as some of the writers and texts and events that helped to shape her fiction: American writers like Mary Wilkins Freeman, Stephen Crane, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Sarah Jewett, Williams Dean Howells as well as European writers like Gustave Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant, Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekov. We will also try to gain a better appreciation of some of the contemporary events, literary movements and issues that influenced her perspectives--from regionalism and naturalism to Darwin and Degas, from the Haymarket Riots to the Comstock Laws, from Reconstruction and the White League to the St. Louis World's Fair. We won't, of course, manage to cover all of these fascinating texts and events, but we will sample as much as we can as engage in a close reading of Chopin's fiction and that of the writers who directly influenced her--or whose own work responded to her vision.  More formally, our goals include

• Learning to read, think, and write more critically about literary texts.
• Understanding the cultural and historical contexts of the fiction of Kate Chopin.
  
• Reflecting critically on representative examples of late nineteenth-century fiction and the values these texts embody.
  
• Developing and refining oral and electronic presentation skills.
• Improving research and documentation skills.
  
• Developing an appreciation for the literary achivement of Kate Chopin and the nature of literary influence.

Proposed Texts:  The following is a proposed list of texts and writers, but changes and substitutions may still occur. Some of these and other texts may also be available electronically. Don't buy anything yet that you don't want to read.

Course Prerequisites Credit for Composition (ENGL T-122 or equivalent) and for "Writing about Literature/The Emerging Self (ENGL T-125 or equivalent); in other words, this should not be your first college English course.  Junior status or permission of the instructor is recommended.

Probable Requirements Textual responses § weekly comments (typically about 200-250 words) to be posted on  Blackboard Discussion Board before class; at least a portion of these will be graded contractually; i. e., just doing all of them on time gets credit. (35-40%) Critical writing and research § at least one brief (800-1500 words) essay; a longer essay may be assigned for additional credit.(25-30%) § one group report in an electronic format (powerpoint, wiki or website) on an assigned contextual topic or writer (25-30%) Final examination. (20-25%)