Oonn Women's Consuming Behavior In Some Of Kate Chopin's Works

Kate Chopin is an American female writer whose works are well-known for theirrich and colorful content and exquisite depiction of unique heroines. Most of herstories are set in St. Louisiana in which many Creoles and Acadians live. KateChopin's acquaintance with the local residents contributes a lot to her writing career.Her vivid description of the story and lifestyle of local residents gain her firstreputation as a charming local colorist. Meanwhile, her novels are heartedly prized bythe western feminist critics for she has revealed the deprivation of female subjectivity,the loss of female self in the patriarchal society in these novels.Since the revival of Kate Chopin's study in the last decades of the twentiethcentury, her works have attracted more and more attention from critics at home andabroad. Many aspects have been analyzed until now, the language, quoted poems,female images for example. Most of Chopin's novels were written in 1890s whenAmerican economy and domestic commerce started to boom, and America enteredinto the embryonic form of consumer society. Later, with the development ofconsumerism, scholars gradually come to notice the consuming behavior reflected inKate Chopin's stories. For instance, Allen Stein's"Kate Chopin's'A Pair of SilkStockings': the Marital Burden and the Lure of Consumerism"and CristinaGiorcelli's"Sheer Luxury: Kate Chopin's'A Pair of Silk Stockings'".This thesis will further the study of Kate Chopin's works from the perspective ofconsumerism. Drawing on two famous socialists, Thorstein Veblen's and JeanBaudrillard's consumption theory, this thesis will analyze women's social status inconsumer society, their consuming behavior, the real function of this behavior in theirquest of female self and rebellion against patriarchal constraints. According toVeblen's concept of conspicuous consumption, women's consuming behavior is easyto become the evidence of men's pecuniary success, and is hard to cast off theubiquitous patriarchal constraints. In addition, Baudrillard argues that commoditiesare consumed for their sign-value rather than use-value in consumer society. But thesign-value of a commodity is arbitrary, which is constantly changing. This might imply that for women the hope of constructing their female selfhood throughconsuming behavior would result in vein.The analysis of women's construction of selfhood and rebellion againstpatriarchal constraints in Kate Chopin's works from the view of consumerism mightreveal the deep social reasons beneath the long-standing women's problem. It maycontribute a little to the better understanding of Kate Chopin and her works as well.