Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Freitas, Molly J.

Titel

The Artist: Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin's The Awakening (1899) and Ruth Raefsky in Anzia Yezierska's "Wild Winter Love" (1927)

Ist Teil von

• From Subjection to Survival, 2023, p.23-61

Auflage

1

Ort / Verlag

Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This paradigm of the natural genius overcome yet transfigured by a talent greater than himself has long been associated with male artists in the Western world. Both Edna Pontellier, the protagonist of Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening (1899), and Ruth Raefsky, the protagonist of Anzia Yezierska's short story, "Wild Winter Love" (1927), are women who fashion themselves artists in the male "genius" mode. Both women also engage in love affairs with unsuitable men and, soon after the affairs' ends, commit suicide. This chapter argues that the "genius" ideal of artistry both women seek is exclusive, male-defined, and forecloses the possibility of a liberating, salvific female community, which, frustratingly for the reader, is offered within the texts themselves. Both Edna and Ruth, however, reject this kinship for the romantic companionship of men and an isolated vision of artistry. However, given their dissimilar class, religious, and ethnic/racial identities, Edna and Ruth also exhibit important differences that prohibit reducing their two stories to a single narrative. A warning, however, exists in both texts: women must envision and claim a new vision of artistry not only to find fulfillment in art and life but also to survive in the face of subjection.