Frame Narratives Within the Short Stories of Kate Chopin
Abstract
Traditionally, scholars have interpreted framed stories such as Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness using the conventional “picture-frame” narratological approach. Otherwise known as the nested narrative, the “picture-frame” model perceives works via a structural binary akin to the usual “story within a story” paradigm. While such an approach works well for surface-level storyboards, it is not universal. Indeed, recent scholars such as Eric Berlatsky have noted that imposing such a standard model on multifaceted texts with more elusive frames hinders the ability for meaning, causing researchers to undermine and neglect the holistic readings of the work at hand. Thus, when examining Kate Chopin’s short stories “A Lady of Bayou St. John” and “La Belle Zoraïde,” texts which share the same cast of characters, this review employs and illustrates the multiple frame comic approach, which through the incorporation of a kaleidoscope of frames, allows readers to go beyond the sorrowful plot and make new discoveries concerning colorism and power imbalances on homeownership, marriage, and more in the reconstructing south.
Frame Narratives Within the Short Stories of Kate Chopin
Waves Cafeteria
Traditionally, scholars have interpreted framed stories such as Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness using the conventional “picture-frame” narratological approach. Otherwise known as the nested narrative, the “picture-frame” model perceives works via a structural binary akin to the usual “story within a story” paradigm. While such an approach works well for surface-level storyboards, it is not universal. Indeed, recent scholars such as Eric Berlatsky have noted that imposing such a standard model on multifaceted texts with more elusive frames hinders the ability for meaning, causing researchers to undermine and neglect the holistic readings of the work at hand. Thus, when examining Kate Chopin’s short stories “A Lady of Bayou St. John” and “La Belle Zoraïde,” texts which share the same cast of characters, this review employs and illustrates the multiple frame comic approach, which through the incorporation of a kaleidoscope of frames, allows readers to go beyond the sorrowful plot and make new discoveries concerning colorism and power imbalances on homeownership, marriage, and more in the reconstructing south.