Edna as a Metaphorical Lesbian in Chopin’s The Awakening Essay

Edna as a Metaphorical Lesbian in Chopins The wake upElizabeth LeBlanc places The Awakening in an interesting context in her essay The Metaphorical Lesbian, as gender criticism must, for Chopin wrote the novel at the end of the 19th century, when homoeroticism as an identity emerged culturally, at least in terms of the gay male identity, as proffered by Oscar Wilde across the Atlantic. Lesbianism, too, started to make its debut on the cultural stage, particularly in literature. However, although lesbianism started to emerge during Chopins lifetime, it seems doubtful that it played any formative role for Ednas characterization. Yet gender criticism often requires a reading of a text in light of gender and familiarity regardless of authorial intent. LeBlanc wisely stops short of calling Edna an authentic lesbian, alternatively appropriating Bonnie Zimmermans metaphorical lesbian by which a character engages in a variety of woman-identified practices that suggest but stop short of se xual encounters, often falling into the continuum of female-centered relationships as identif...