by Heather Ostman (Author)
This book explores the Catholic aesthetic and mystical dimensions in Kate
Chopin's fiction within the context of an evolving American Catholicism in the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Through a close reading of her
novels and numerous short stories, Kate Chopin and Catholicism looks at the
ways Chopin represented Catholicism in her work as a literary device that served
on multiple levels: as an aesthetic within local color depictions of Louisiana, as a
trope for illuminating the tensions surrounding nineteenth-century women's
struggles for autonomy, as a critique of the Catholic dogma that subordinated
authenticity and physical and emotional pleasure, and as it pointed to the
distinction between religious doctrine and mystical experience, and enabled the
articulation of spirituality beyond the context of the Church. This book reveals
Chopin to be not only a literary visionary but a writer who saw divinity in the
natural world.
Back Jacket
'Heather Ostman's Kate Chopin and Catholicism is meaty, interesting, and
provocative. It may change the way we all read this marvel of a writer.'
-- Linda Wagner-Martin, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, and author of Hemingway's
Wars: The Public and Private Battles (2017)
methodology with rich possibilities for studies of Kate Chopin and American
realism. As Chopin became immersed in the studies of Darwin, she drew away
from practicing Catholicism. Ostman demonstrates how Chopin used Catholicism
as a device to examine social issues and critique the schism between physical and
corporeal pleasure. Ostman exemplifies how Chopin leveraged Catholicism to
arrive at a revolutionary and unorthodox definition of mysticism and spirituality.'
-- Kate O'Donoghue, Associate Professor of English, Suffolk County
Community College, USA
This book explores the Catholic aesthetic and mystical dimensions in Kate
Chopin's fiction within the context of an evolving American Catholicism in the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Through a close reading of her
novels and numerous short stories, Kate Chopin and Catholicism looks at the
ways Chopin represented Catholicism in her work as a literary device that served
on multiple levels: as an aesthetic within local color depictions of Louisiana, as a
trope for illuminating the tensions surrounding nineteenth-century women's
struggles for autonomy, as a critique of the Catholic dogma that subordinated
authenticity and physical and emotional pleasure, and as it pointed to the
distinction between religious doctrine and mystical experience, and enabled the
articulation of spirituality beyond the context of the Church. This book reveals
Chopin to be not only a literary visionary but a writer who saw divinity in the
natural world.
Author Biography
Heather Ostman is Professor of English and Director of the Humanities Institute at SUNY Westchester Community College. She is President of the Kate Chopin International Society, and her books include Kate Chopin in Context: New Critical Essays (2015), Kate Chopin in the Twenty-First Century (2008), The Fiction of Junot Díaz: Reframing the Lens (2016), and Writing Program Administration and the Community College (2013).