In the past two decades scholars have come to realize that Kate Chopin is a major figure in southern and women's literature. This realization has in turn fueled an exploration of the motives and strategies that inform her work. Here, fourteen revealing essays consider Chopin's life and art from a variety of critical perspectives--biographical, New Historicist, materialist, poststructuralist, feminist. Lynda S. Boren's introduction sets the tone, describing the Louisiana region from which Chopin's portraits emerged and identifying the peculiar difficulties faced by southern women in their quest for independence. The first section of the book focuses on biographical issues. Emily Toth analyzes Chopin's relationship with her mother and grandmothers and their influences on her fiction; Jean Bardot connects Chopin to the Creole heritage of her husband. Heather Kirk Thomas, discussing Chopin's creative motivation, questions earlier biographical and critical interpretations. Many of the pieces focus on Chopin's classic novel, The Awakening. Essays by Deborah E. Barker, Dorothy H. Jacobs, and Martha Fodaski Black examine aspects of confinement and liberation in Chopin's portrayal of the novel's protagonist, Edna Pontellier. Drawing on Chopin's connections to Greek tragedy, Baudelaire, Ibsen, and Shaw, these essays offer intriguing glimpses of Chopin's literary and political sophistication. Essays by John Carlos Rowe and Doris Davis focus on Chopin's awareness of the role of women, particularly those in the leisured class, in the economic structure of American society. Barbara C. Ewell, Katherine Joslin, and Lynda S. Boren, in individual essays, discuss the influence of the romantic tradition on Chopin's work. The book's final essays consider some of Chopin's lesser-known fiction. Sara deSaussure Davis deciphers the mythical structure of the story collection A Vocation and a Voice, Anne M. Blythe offers a new interpretation of the long story "Charlie," and Nancy S. Ellis examines musical themes in several of Chopin's stories. Illuminating the diverse forces that shaped Kate Chopin's immense talent, this volume will be an indispensable resource for students of her novels and stories.