Speaking the Unspeakable : Subversive Eroticism in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Edith Wharton’s Summer

摘要

This research analyzes and compares the use of eroticism as a means of subversion in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Edith Wharton’s Summer. Being published in a notably repressive period, especially concerning female sexuality, these two novels, by putting their focus in their heroines’ sexual awakening, transgressed the social norms of their time. Chopin and Wharton erotize their heroines in order to question the established order, which, a part from subjugating female desire, made of women completely dependent beings without intellectual aspirations. By erotizing their heroines, they empower them and provide them with both personal and sexual agency.