Kate Chopin and Judith Ortiz Cofer Biographical Guided Notes

Kate Chopin: Younger years Catherine (Kate) O’Flaherty was born in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, on February 8, 1850. Father was Irish, mother was French (she grew up speaking both French and English) From 1855 to 1868 Kate attended the St. Louis Academy of the Sacred Heart (Catholic school), with one year at the Academy of the Visitation. Surrounded by strong, nurturing women (mother, grandmother, nuns)

Kate Chopin: Younger years In 1855, her father was killed in a railroad accident. In 1863 her beloved French- speaking great grandmother died.  Her half brother enlisted in the Confederate army (Civil War), was captured by Union forces, and died of typhoid fever.

Kate Chopin: Married Life Kate met Oscar Chopin of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana; Kate and Oscar were married in 1870 (she was 19). The couple settled in New Orleans, where Oscar established a business as a cotton factor, dealing with cotton and other commodities (corn, sugar, and molasses, among them). Between 1871 and 1879 Kate gave birth to five sons and a daughter–in order of birth, Jean Baptiste, Oscar Charles, George Francis, Frederick, Felix Andrew, and Lélia (baptized Marie Laïza).

Kate Chopin: Married Life In 1879 the Chopins moved to Cloutierville, a small French village in Natchitoches Parish, in northwestern Louisiana, after Oscar closed his New Orleans business because of hard financial times. Oscar bought a general store in Cloutierville, but in 1882 he died of malaria–and Kate became a widow at age thirty-two, with the responsibility of raising six children. She never remarried. 1885, her mother died.

Kate Chopin: Writing Career and death In 1890 her first novel, At Fault, was published privately. The book is about a thirtyish Catholic widow in love with a divorced man. Wrote over 100 short stories, including:  “A Point at Issue!,” “A No-Account Creole,” “Beyond the Bayou,” “Désirée’s Baby,”  “Lilacs,” “The Story of an Hour” and “A Respectable Woman.” Chopin worked on The Awakening in 1897, finishing the novel in 1898.  It is essentially about a married woman who cheats on her husband and then kills herself in the end. A few critics praised the novel’s artistry, but most were very negative, calling the book “morbid,” “unpleasant,” “unhealthy,” “sordid,” “poison.”

Kate Chopin: Writing Career and death She also wrote her short story “The Storm” in 1898, but, apparently because of its sexual content, she did not send it out to publishers.  In 1904 Kate Chopin bought a season ticket for the famous St. Louis World’s Fair, which was located not far from her home. It had been hot in the city all that summer, and Saturday, August 20, was especially hot, so when Chopin returned home from the fair, she was very tired. She called her son at midnight complaining of a pain in her head. Doctors thought that she had had a cerebral hemorrhage. She lapsed into unconsciousness the next day and died on August 22. 

Kate Chopin: Critical acclaim While she was alive, Kate’s work was heavily criticized for her portrayal of sexual, independent thinking women. It was not until after her death that she became popular. One critic said on Chopin, “[She] broke new ground in American literature. She was the first woman writer in her country to accept passion as a legitimate subject for serious, outspoken fiction. Revolting against tradition and authority; with a daring which we can hardy fathom today; with an uncompromising honesty and no trace of sensationalism, she undertook to give the unsparing truth about woman’s submerged life. She was something of a pioneer in the amoral treatment of sexuality, of divorce, and of woman’s urge for an existential authenticity. She is in many respects a modern writer, particularly in her awareness of the complexities of truth and the complications of freedom.”

Judith Ortiz Cofer Judith Ortiz Cofer was born in Hormigueros, a small town in Puerto Rico in 1952. When she was a young child her father’s military career took the family to Paterson, New Jersey. At 15, her family moved again, this time to Augusta, Georgia, where she eventually earned a BA in English from Augusta College. 

Judith Ortiz Cofer She later earned an MA in English from Florida Atlantic University and did graduate work at Oxford University. When she was nineteen, Judith Ortiz married Charles John Cofer, a businessman. The couple has a daughter, Tanya. In 1984 she joined the faculty of the University of Georgia in Athens.  She died in December 2016.

Judith Ortiz Cofer Ortiz Cofer’s work explores the rifts and gaps that arise between her split cultural heritages. Her early immersion in both Puerto Rican and American culture shaped her multi- genre approach, which includes works of fiction, prose, poetry, and sometimes a combination of the three.  Poetry collections include: Peregrina (1986), Terms of Survival (1987), Reaching for the Mainland (1995), and A Love Story Beginning in Spanish (2005).

Judith Ortiz Cofer Other works include: The Line of the Sun (1989), a novel nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood (1990), Woman in Front of the Sun, Call Me María (2004), and The Cruel Country(2015), which recounts her return to Puerto Rico in 2011 to nurse her dying mother. In 2010, Ortiz Cofer was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. Her awards include grants from the Witter Bynner Foundation and the Georgia Council for the Arts, as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts for poetry, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and the Florida Fine Arts Council. 

“Story of an Hour” and “Volar” Under each section, label and take notes on the following: Key Points: Write down 3-5 key points of the story/essay Women’s Roles: Write down the roles/expectations of women/girls in each as well as how the characters/narrators react/feel to/about those expectations. Biographical Influence: Connect what you know about each author from the biography notes to the texts (how does each author incorporated herself in each piece) Irony: Explain the irony in Chopin’s story (situational and dramatic) Perspective: Explain the Perspective and why it is important in Cofer’s story