Information about the AUTHOR

Kate Chopin, born Katherine O'Flaherty  is an American novelist and short-story writer. She is now considered by some to have been an advocate of the feminist authors of the 20th century. When her husband Oscar Chopin died in 1882, Kate was suddenly a young widow with six children. She turned to writing and from 1892 to 1895, she wrote short stories for both children and adults which were published in such magazines as Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, The Century Magazine, and The Youth's Companion. Her major works were two short story collections, Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897). The Awakening, the novel considered Chopin's masterpiece, was subject to harsh criticism at the time for its frank approach to sexual themes. It was rediscovered in the 1960s and has since become a standard of American literature, appreciated for its sophistication. Chopin reported that she was neither a feminist nor a suffragist she just wrote about women's issues she saw during her lifetime. Kate Chopin is one of the earliest examples of modernism in the United States. She was interested in the perspective, point of view, craft, use of imagery, multiple perspectives just as much as the story itself. Her style was influenced by French writers Guy de Maupassant (she loved his economy of detail) and Émile Zola (she was impressed by his determination to tell the truth); besides that, she often places her characters in a geographical and historical moment and details their sometimes exotic speech patterns and cultural dispositions. Conclusively, Kate Chopin is known to be a woman ahead of her time. Even though during her lifetime she was looked down upon for the things she wrote, she is now celebrated and acclaimed by people around the world.