• American Studies
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.1-23
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• 2020

This paper is an effort to critique the heteronormative interpretations of Kate Chopin's The Awakening and to examine the relationships of three women-Edna Pontellier, Adele Ratignolle, Mademoiselle Reisz-in the homosocial climate of the Grand Isle. Through the disclosure of erotic encounters between these women and their deferred gratification, Chopin reveals the social imperative which suppresses and fixates female desire on a male object choice. Chopin also sheds light upon the masculine language appropriating romance and chivalry that renders it impossible for Edna to articulate her sexuality within the matrix of the phallocentric society. The Awakening is not a conventionalized plot which ends in Edna's subordination to the patriarchal order; rather, the story demonstrates the "process" of how her sexual awakening becomes negotiated under the patriarchal system and exposes the excess of desire that fails to be subsumed under the hegemonic discourse.