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Tatyana N. Shmeleva
Lenin Ivanovo State Power Engineering University
Kate Chopin’s prose in the context of American transcendentalism
Shmeleva T.N. Kate Chopin’s Prose in the Context of American Transcendentalism. Vestnik of Kostroma State University, 2021, vol. 27, № 3, pp. 161–164 (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2021-27-3-161-164
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2021-27-3-161-164
УДК: 821(7).09''19''
Publish date: 2021-08-18
Annotation: The article deals with the typological parallels between Kate Chopin’s literary-artistic system and philosophical doctrine of transcendentalism. As well as the majority of the writers of that time Kate Chopin could not avoid the influence of the ideas determining the peculiarities of cultural atmosphere in America, Ralf Waldo Emerson’s ideas in particular. Emerson’s philosophical and aesthetic conception proclaimed individual freedom the highest value, pointed out the intuitive nature of creative work. American transcendentalism encouraged to depict even mundane life events, empowered the art with a special role in the discovery of the world. These provisions were especially close to Kate Chopin and were rather peculiarly embodied in her works. Thus, Kate Chopin depicted mundane events from American life in all their diversity. In her works art is a way to penetrate into the deepest core of existence. The cross-cutting theme of Kate Chopin’s writing was her heroines’ understanding of their own significance, the necessity of freedom and self-realisation and that coincides greatly with Emerson’s “self-reliance” doctrine. Nevertheless, transcendentalism ideas being a part of cultural code of the time combined in Kate Chopin’s works with her individual worldview and that reflected in special ironic implication of her prose.
Keywords: American literature, Kate Chopin, women’s prose, gender, Ralf Waldo Emerson, transcendentalism, “self-reliance”
Literature list: Koreneva M.M. Keit Shopen [Kate Chopin]. Istoriia literatury SShA: v 4 t. [The History of Literature in the USA: in 4 vols]. Moscow, IMLI RAN Publ., 2003, vol. 4, pp. 708–758. (In Russ.) Morozova I.V. Kontseptsiia Boga i prirody v tvorchestve Keit Shopen [The Concept of God and Nature in Kate Chopin’s Works]. Khristianstvo i amerikanskaia kul'tura: tez. dokl. mezhdunar. nauch. konf. obshchestva po izucheniiu kul'tury SShA [Christianity and American Culture: Abstracts of International Scientific Conference of the USA Culture Studies Society]. Moscow, MGU im. M.V. Lomonosova Publ., 2000, pp. 156–157. (In Russ.) Morozova T.L. Spor o cheloveke v amerikanskoi literature [The Dispute about Man in American Literature]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1990, 334 p. (In Russ.) Osipova E.F. Ral'f Uoldo Emerson: Pisatel' i vremia [Ralf Waldo Emerson: The Writer and the Time]. L., Publ. Leningr. Un-ta, 1991, 136 p. (In Russ.) Emerson R.U. Doverie k sebe [Self-Reliance]. Pisateli SShA o literature: v 2 t. [American Writers about Literature: in 2 vols.]. Moscow, Progress Publ., 1982, vol. 1, pp. 36–59. (In Russ.)
Author's info: Tatyana N. Shmeleva, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Lenin Ivanovo State Power Engineering University, Ivanovo, Russia, tanyale@yandex.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9558-3269