Kate Chopin’s stories including “A Pair of Silk Stockings,” “A Very Fine Fiddle” and “Azelie” are rich in subject-object relationships. Close text analysis helps explicate the power of these objects or things. A thing is animate and an object is not. The stockings, fiddle, and store objects are part of a transaction between things and people; what is an object to one character is a thing to another. Exploration of Victorian women and department stores illuminates how stockings overpower Mrs. Sommers. Research on share tenant life, violins’ value, and Louisiana mixed ancestry reveals how the fiddle enables Fifine and Cleophas to re-imagine their identities and cross social boundaries; similarly, “authentic woman” feminist theory highlights how objects affect Azelie’s agency. Functioning atypically, stockings, a fiddle, and store items become things and not just objects. Things invite Chopin’s characters to embrace uncertainty. We are in things and things are in us. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fau.edu/oai:fau.digital.flvc.org:fau_41384 |
| Contributors | Moldow, Susan (author), Bradford, Adam (Thesis advisor), Florida Atlantic University (Degree grantor), Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English |
| Publisher | Florida Atlantic University |
| Source Sets | Florida Atlantic University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 71 p., application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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