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

Edna as a Metaphorical Lesbian in Chopins The wakeElizabeth LeBlanc places The Awakening in an interesting context in her essay The Metaphorical Lesbian, as gender reproof must, for Chopin wrote the novel at the end of the 19th century, when homosexualism as an identity emerged culturally, at least in terms of the homo 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 vie any formative role for Ednas characterization. Yet gender criticism often requires a reading of a text in lilting of gender and sexuality regardless of authorial intent. LeBlanc wisely stops poor of calling Edna an authentic lesbian, instead appropriating Bonnie Zimmermans metaphorical lesbian by which a character engages in a variety of woman-identified practices that apprize but stop short of sexual enco unters, often falling into the continuum of female-centered relationships as identif...