Table of Contents

About the Series.- About this Volume.- PART ONE: THE AWAKENING: THE COMPLETE TEXT IN CULTURAL CONTEXT Introduction: Biographical and Historical Contexts.- The Complete Text.- Cultural Documents:.- Two Contemporary Reviews of The Awakening.- Advertisements from Women's Magazines.- Fashion Plates from Women's Magazines.- A People who Live Amid Romance; R. McEnery Stuart (Ladies Home Journal, December 1896).- The Artist and Marriage (The Atlantic Monthly, January 1899).- What it Means to be a Wife; H. Watterson Moody (Ladies Home Journal, March 1899).- The True Meaning of Motherhood; H. Watterson Moody (Ladies Home Journal, May 1899).- What Women Find to do All Day (Ladies Home Journal, April 1899).- The Evolution of Woman in the South; W. Gregory (Godey's Magazine, October 1897).- PART TWO: THE AWAKENING: A CASE STUDY IN CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM Feminist Criticism and The Awakening.- A Feminist Perspective: Tradition and the Female Talent: The Awakening as a Solitary Book; E. Showalter.- The New Historicism and The Awakening.- A New Historicist Perspective: Personal Property: Exchange Value and the Female Self in The Awakening; M. Stange.- Gender Criticism and The Awakening.- A Gender Perspective: The Metaphorical Lesbian: Edna Pontellier in The Awakening; E. LeBlanc.- Deconstruction and The Awakening.- A Deconstructionist Perspective: 'A Language Which Nobody Understood': Emancipatory Strategies in The Awakening; P. S. Yaeger.- Reader-Response and The Awakening.- A Reader-Response Perspective: The Construction of Ambiguity in The Awakening: A Linguistic Analysis; P. A. Treichler.- Combining Critical Perspectives: Un-Utterable Longing: The Discourse of Feminine Sexuality in Kate Chopin's The Awakening; C. Griffin Wolff.- Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms.- About the Contributors.

About the Author

NANCY A. WALKER is Professor of English at Vanderbilt University.