Realism, Naturalism, Local Color
Kate Chopin / Edith Wharton
Kate Chopin (1850-1904)
Desirés's Baby
Realism in the story: strict division of classes in Louisiana before the CW: there are blacks, and there are whites. Terminology classification that shows us how important it is (quadroons, ...), the Paris connection (there they could be normal human beings)
Naturalism in the story: social roles attributed by race --> similar to what Darwin does. house slaves are yellow, field slaves have darker skin, ... Presumed "natural" order.
Romantic beginning: D.'s name, found beside a stone pillar in the plantation, looking beautiful, innocent, they speak French, the place is called L'Ambri, "this is not the baby" --> mystery, ... It plays with the standard of romanticism
Local Color: adding anthropological touches to a scene to suggest exoticism, mystery, adventure --> presentation of the features and peculiarities of a particular locality: in our case --> French (language), the slaves, evocation of Paris, extreme character of Armand's love and dismissal of Desiree
the last line gives us the resolution of the story (Armound's mom is black!!!)
Edith Wharton (1863-1937) --> transitional character
She goes to France after the divorce (1914)
From realism to modernism (figure of transition)
NY Dutch aristocracy (they still look backwards) --> she gets disaffected of that scene and writes novel about it but form distance.
Realist writer but wrote when naturalism was ascendant
Roman Fever
A society story
Naturalism: Women that think that the character of the children is directly influences by the characters of the parents --> in this case of the mothers since the two daughters have the same father. Ms. Slade is not so brilliant as she believes to be! Barbara: product of an illicit union --> she is rebellious, Jenny: regular marriage --> boring
A classic naturalism story
sexual competition that they have since when they are 20: Ms. Slade lost!
metaphor: knitting/ twilight
Short story
no character development
starts near the climax of the event
one theme
may reverse a situation in the last sentence: "I got Barbara"
it does not RESOLVE but REVEALS