From Initial Opportunities to The Awakening: A Paradoxical View of the Rise of Women's Literature

Authors

Rebecca Christensen, Brigham Young University

Keywords

Female press, Women writers, Morality, Separate sphere, Kate Chopin

Abstract

The 1800s saw the broadening of the female press with an expanded audience and increasing numbers of women writers. These women, following the admonition of Sarah Hale, emphasized the role of women as defenders of morality. Women, they believed, functioned in a separate sphere and their writing stressed women's proper place in family and home environments. The strong literary foundation created by the success of these women, however, paradoxically lead to the emergence of Kate Chopin, whose works reject the conventional model of women as the ideal of virtue and demonstrate women's needs as an individuals.

Recommended Citation

Christensen, Rebecca (1991) "From Initial Opportunities to The Awakening: A Paradoxical View of the Rise of Women's Literature," The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing: Vol. 20: Iss. 1, Article 2.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thetean/vol20/iss1/2