Social and Religious Critique and Transformation through the Short Fiction

Abstract

Following the portrait of Chopin’s cultural and historic context, the second chapter explores selected short stories that feature Chopin’s depiction of Catholic aesthetics, symbols, traditions, and dogma as social and religious critique. With an exploration of “local color” as a subgenre that facilitated such critique, this chapter examines stories such as “After the Winter,” “With the Violin,” “A Matter of Prejudice,” “At Chêniere Caminada,” “A Sentimental Soul,” “Love on the Bon-Dieu,” “Madame Celéstin’s Divorce,” and others to show the many ways she used the subgenre to illuminate and critique social and religious conventions through characters that often appear quaint and innocent—and undeniably “southern.”