A Deconstructionist Critique of Chopin’s The Awakening Essay -- Chopin

A Deconstructionist Critique of Chopins The wake upThe multiplicity of meanings and (re)interpretations informing critical studies of The Awakening reveal a unfermented ripe for deconstructionist critique. Just as Chopin evokes an image of the sea as symbolic of Ednas shifting consciousness (never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to range in abysses of solitude,138), likewise the deconstructionist reading of a text emphasizes runniness over structure A text consists of words inscribed in and inextricable from the myriad discourses that inform it from the point of view of deconstruction, the boundaries between whatever given text and that larger text we call language argon always shifting, (297). From this perspective, the reader/critic opens the doors of interpretation instead of narrowing their focalize to any singular, exclusionary reading, and exposes the deconstruction at work within the text itself. Whether define as feminist martyr, metaphoric al lesbian, the triumphant image of social transcendence or a broken bird beating the air in a higher place . . . circlin...