Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman Studies in Short Fiction

by Beer, Janet

• ISBN13: 9781403942760
• ISBN10: 1403942765
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-03-16
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The work of Chopin, Wharton, and Gilman in the short story is more highly esteemed in contemporary critical opinion than ever before. Janet Beer illuminates their congruities as well as their diversity and demonstrates the unique, innovatory contribution that each made to the tradition of the short story. She looks at the short fiction of all three writers in terms of both genre and theme, ranging between discussions of Chopin's short stories and Wharton's novellas; between Chopin's frankly erotic writing and the homilies in which Gilman warns of the dangers of the sexually transmitted disease. Other issues addressed are ethnicity in the work of Chopin, Wharton's New England stories, Gilman's innovative use of genre and "The Yellow Wallpaper" on film. Separate aspects of the individual writers are explored, concentrating closely on subject and style and engaging in detailed readings of a range of texts. This is the first time these writers have been compared in depth in one volume.

Author Biography

Janet Beer is Pro Vice Chancellor and Dean of Humanities, Law and Social Science at the Manchester Metropolitan University.

Table of Contents

Preface to the 2004 Reprint	ix
Acknowledgements	xi
1 Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Studies in Short Fiction - An Introduction	1	(23)
2 "dah you is, settin' down, lookin' jis' like w'ite folks!" Ethnicity Enacted in Kate Chopin's Short Fiction	24	(16)
3 Without End: the Shape and Form of Desire in Kate Chopin's Short Fiction	40	(26)
4 Kate Chopin's Short Short Stories - on the Verge(s) of Narrative	66	(25)
5 Edith Wharton and the Coherence of the Novella: From Initiation to Disillusion	91	(25)
6 Edith Wharton, Literary Ghosts and the Writing of New England	116	(31)
7 The Means and Ends of Genre in the Short Fiction of Charlotte Perkins Gilman	147	(27)
8 Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Analogues - Reiterating the Social Health	174	(23)
9 'The Yellow Wallpaper' on Film - Dramatising Mental Illness	197	(17)
Conclusion	214	(2)
Bibliography	216	(4)
Index	220