Teaching Philosophy and Materials
Again, begin by taking a look at our whiteboard from our class discussion. Though the board is a bit blurry, you can probably remember the nature of our discussion by having your memory jogged by the whiteboard image.
We spoke initially about madness and moroseness, two "diagnoses" that Leonce entertains to explain Edna's transformation. The doctor, however, dismisses these. He understands and offers that she needs to be "left alone." By the second third of the novel, we have a good sense of the "material" difference between Leonce and Edna. Edna remarks, concerning Adele Ratignolle, that she pities her for never having had a "moment of anguish . . . ever [visit] her soul" (107). Edna emerges clearly for the reader as a woman who feels detached from the material comforts that populate her lovely New Orleans home, all chosen with the utmost care my her discerning husband. Adele's home is somewhat more unique, a series of rooms comprising an apartment above her husband's pharmacy. Nevertheless, both the Ratignolles and Pontelliers (via Leonce) share a commitment to conforming to "cultural" expectations, and when Edna dismisses these -- in the form initially of her just stopping her Tuesday afternoons at home -- Leonce worries principally about social appearances. His concern with appearances is most manifestly presented through his home, where everything is scheduled, overlaid with pretense, manicured. Adele's home, too, is a domain of quiet (despite their musical evenings), of convention, of tranquility. Edna becomes repulsed by this, feeling more and more alien in a culture pervaded by the performances of "domestic harmony," a culture that attempts to keep women (primarily) from ever "tast[ing] of life's delirium" (109). She desperately wants to experience the whole range of human emotions: that would be truly living.
As a class, we discussed the novel as a study of usefulness vs. uselessness. In effect, following New Orleans Creole cultural conventions, women are made to be useless; this is purportedly a preservation of their womanhood, their femininity. As we discussed, women were not to "strain" themselves with ambitious intellectual pursuits, time-absorbing musical pursuits (though women were often trained to be proficient at the piano or violin), or experimental or "professional" artistic pursuits. A sign of a woman's failing mental health was that she delved too deeply into any of these intellectual/artistic endeavors. We see Edna decidedly committing herself to her art; she feels that such an exercise will allow her to not only live a more sensorily fulfilled life but it will allow her to be useful. In the domain of the elite home, a woman, a mother, was responsible for very little herself, as displayed in Chopin's novel. Edna is surrounded by gardeners who maintain the yard's manicured perfection, by nurses who tend the children, by maids who clean the home, and by cooks who prepare the meals. Edna feels as if she has no role and so, as the second third of the book traces, she divests herself of more and more of the trappings of social convention, a divestment that culminates in her move to the "pigeon house."
One of the initial conversations we had in class about the second third of the book was about its "geographical" configurations; we looked into "geography" as a way of reading the novel, of interpreting the roles of people in certain domains and the movement across different geographic regions (transgression of borders). We looked particularly (as the Tumblr photo reveals) at the domain of the island and the domain of the city. The image shows clearly the way we "define" each of the spaces and our understanding of a (certain kind of) turn-of-the-century's woman's role in each. We can investigate which location deprives a woman more of agency. It appears, from our inquiry, that the city does. It seems to be a decidedly "male" domain and we see Edna struggle to carve out a female, creative, artistic, independent niche within it. As a consequence of her efforts, she pushes (herself) further and further into the social margin -- as there seems to be no space for a woman like her.
Based on the above ideas, as they concern Edna, we must allow study the role of Mademoiselle Reisz -- her home, her musical artistry, her social marginality. She tells Edna that an artist must have a "courageous soul" (115). Is Reisz's life the only possible one that a courageous artist can lead?