Undoing Gender Boundaries: A Post Modern Feminist Critique of Kate Chopin's Selected Stories

Abstract

The aim of this research paper is to prove Kate Chopin‟s stories A Kiss, A Respectable Woman and A Pair of Silk Stockings as the reflection of postmodern feminism. These texts reflect heterogeneous aspects of feminism in the line theoretical perspective of performativity by Judith Butler. On the one hand one can find the confrontation between male and female by interpreting the texts as the epitome of patriarchy. On the other hand, there exists the friendship, co-operation between male and female based on the performance of the characters. The paper reveals that Kate Chopin is creative genius as there are heterogeneous aspects in her own version of feminism that resembles with the idea of post-modern feminism, humanism and deconstruction. Rather than rigid feministic ideas her ideas also possess humanistic concerns as she has critiqued as well as deconstructed patriarchy. The paper ends with the conclusion that Chopin's selected stories stand as the perfect reservoir of postmodernism. Key Words: Classical feminism, post-modern feminism, deconstruction, heterogeneity