Fire destroyed the Kate Chopin House (the Bayou Folk Museum) at 243 La. Highway 495 in Cloutierville, Louisiana, early on October 1, 2008.

Photo by Jean Carter, courtesy Cane River National Heritage Area

We received the following message from Jean Carter:

"I am sending you several of my photos of the tragic fire (10/1/08) that destroyed this wonderful residence and all of its contents. The entire Cloutierville community has suffered a tremendous loss much akin to the death of a beloved family member.

"The historical and cultural heritage of this region will never be the same, and because this tragedy is so fresh, not much has been directed toward the future of the remaining structures on the Kate Chopin property. I hope that you will be able to share my photos with those who value Kate Chopin the person and the author. Thanks for caring about the Kate Chopin House and Bayou Folk Museum.

Jean Carter is the Heritage Ranger for the Cane River National Heritage Area

According to the Shreveport Times:

"The site was a National Historic Landmark and, in its heyday, drew literary audiences from throughout the United States. The loss of the structure and its contents is 'devastating' for the multitude of men and women who for decades have been committed to preserving the Kate Chopin House, said Vicki Parrish, president of the Association for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches. . . .

"History dates construction of the house by slave labor to 1805 to 1809. Alexis Cloutier was the original inhabitant. Oscar Chopin bought it in 1879 and, years later, moved his wife and their six children to the plantation.

"Oscar Chopin died in 1882. Kate Chopin, known as a free-spirited woman, tried to keep it up but moved away in 1884. She sold the property and moved to St. Louis, where she began her literary career."

Photos before and after the fire by Jean Carter, courtesy Cane River National Heritage Area

We received this message from Thomas Bonner, Jr:

"The Kate Chopin House stood on a less traveled Louisiana highway in the small town of Cloutierville. The size of the town, closer to a village, has changed little since the early 1880s when Chopin lived there with her family. Cars and trucks have replaced the horses and wagons that once traveled the road along the front of the house where once a dirt street separated wooden sidewalks. From the front gallery of the house, one could look across the road over the low roofs of modest modern homes to the slowly meandering Cane River and the cultivated fields beyond, a scene similar to what Chopin herself would have enjoyed.

"The house itself built on brick piers would have survived any high water from an over flow of the river. The main rooms were six to seven feet above the ground-level basement. The house was more charming and gracious than elegant; in the Mississippi Valley it was rare to have an elegant home far from the Mississippi River, the route which artisans in the fine building trades traveled.

"As Chopin had earlier in New Orleans, she collected characters and experiences for her fiction in and around the settlement on the Cane River. In her writing she used the 'village' as she often referred to Cloutierville in many stories, at least once describing it as 'two long rows of very old frame houses.' She set her first novel At Fault in the pastoral plantation country about Cloutierville, where the modern world was arriving in the forms of the railroad and lumber mills.

"The great threat to homes in Chopin's time was fire, and that threat was realized in the past week when now the chimney overlooks the ruins about it."

Thomas Bonner, Jr. is Professor Emeritus at Xavier University of Louisiana. He is the author of The Kate Chopin Companion with Chopin’s Translations from French Fiction. He has published and spoken on Kate Chopin and her writing since 1969.

Update: Jeff Guin at the National Center for Preservation Technology & Training in Natchitoches, Louisiana, has produced a heritage netcast on recovering items from the remains of the Kate Chopin House which burned in October. The YouTube video describes work being done at the site of the fire.

For more information about the fire, contact the manager of the Association for the Preservation of Historical Natchitoches (APHN) Foundation:

Scott Norton
Melrose Plantation
P. O. Box 48
Melrose, LA 71452-3416

Phone: 318.379.0055

To donate for the restoration of the site of the Kate Chopin House, contact and/or send donations to the non-profit organization that owns it. Designate the purpose of the donation:

The Association for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches
Vicki Parrish, President
P.O. Box 2248
Natchitoches, LA 71457

Phone: 318.357.5000
parrishvj@aol.com

Call for Proposals for the Kate Chopin International Society panel at the 2010 American Literature Association Conference, May 27–30, 2010, in San Francisco

Kate Chopin in Other Media

Although there has been significant scholarly attention paid to the literature of Kate Chopin, we are seeking papers or presentations that focus on Kate Chopin in other, less conventional, media, such as films or videos, stories or lore about Kate Chopin, or Kate Chopin in the blogosphere. We encourage innovative proposals. Please submit a 200/250-word abstract, as well as academic affiliation, to Kathleen Nigro by 08 January 2010. Requests for audio-visual equipment should accompany your proposal.

Kate Chopin papers at the 2009 Society for the Study of American Women Writers Conference, October 23, Philadelphia

Philosophy and Characterization in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Short Fiction

Chair: Kelli Purcell O’Brien, The University of Memphis

Kimberly Greenfield, The University of Memphis, “‘Désirée’s Baby’: A Linguistic Look at the Intersection of Desire With Reality”

John Staunton, Eastern Michigan University, “Unsettling Readers: Kate Chopin, Pedagogy, and the Discourses of Knowing”

Joseph George, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, “Antagonists for Her to Overcome: A Phenomenological Approach to The Awakening”

Kelli Purcell O’Brien, The University of Memphis, “Tonie: A Unique Look at the Recurring Character in Kate Chopin”

Kate Chopin papers at the 8th Biennial Berry College Southern Women Writers Conference, 2009, September 24–26, Mount Berry, Georgia

Miranda Livingston from Texas Woman’s University presented "The Male Characters in Selected Fiction of Kate Chopin" in a session on Southern Women Writers and Masculinity.

Kate Chopin's South

Corrie Catlett Merricks, University of Mississippi, "'Where is my little one?': Race, Power, and Motherhood in Kate Chopin’s Fiction"

Ma Zuqiong, University of Louisville, "New South, New China: How New Were They for Kate Chopin and Zhang Ailing?"

Kelli Purcell O’Brien, University of Memphis, "Sex Outside Marriage, Inside of Love in Kate Chopin"

Kate Chopin Panels at the 2009 American Literature Association Annual Conference, May 21–24, Boston

Kate Chopin, Pedagogy, and the Secondary Classroom: Problems and Possibilities
Moderator: John May, Louisiana State University

"Well Rounding: A Multitheoretical Approach for Teaching The Awakening," Kyllikki Persson, Belmont University

" 'She is not like us': Edna Pontellier in the Inner City," Kate S. Flynn, Roosevelt High School, St. Louis, Missouri

“Chopin's Fatal Awakening,” Xueling Wu, China University of Geosciences (Beijing) & Texas A&M-Commerce; Rukiya Muhanmmad, China University of Geosciences (Beijing) & Texas A&M-Commerce

"Pedagogical Prospects at the Edge of Certainty: Teaching and Learning to Teach Chopin in the Pre-service Classroom," John A. Staunton, Eastern Michigan University

Subversive Narratives: Reinterpretations by Kate Chopin
Moderator: Kathleen Butterly Nigro, University of Missouri--St. Louis

"Kate Chopin and Visual Art," Judith H. Bonner, The Historic New Orleans Collection; Thomas Bonner, Jr., Xavier University of New Orleans

"Crossing the Line: Physical Boundaries in Kate Chopin's 'In and Out of Old Natchitoches,' " Meredith Frederich, Northern Illinois University

"Motherhood and Kate Chopin's 'Regret,' " Heather Ostman, Westchester Community College, SUNY

"Dead Women Talking: The Transgressive Manuscripts of 'Her Letters' and 'Elizabeth Stock's One Story,' " Margot Sempreora, Webster University

Kate Chopin Panels at the 2008 American Literature Association Annual Conference, May 22–25, San Francisco

Kate Chopin: New Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity
Moderator: Tom Morgan, University of Dayton

"Failed Hybridity: Creole Identity in Kate Chopin's The Awakening and Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea," JoSann Lien, Idaho State University

"When Désirée's Baby Grows Up: 'Passing' and Erasure in Kate
Chopin's 'Désirée's Baby' and Fannie Flagg's Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!" Abigail L. Montgomery, Blue Ridge Community College

"Rethinking the Myth of the Black Rapist: Kate Chopin and the Erasure of the Black Male," Delores Amorelli, University of Florida

Theoretical Approaches to Kate Chopin
Moderator: Christina Bucher, Berry College

"Regional Aesthetics: The Role of Region in Construction of Gender- and Race-Based Identities and Stereotypes in the Work of Kate Chopin and Grace King," Dagmar Junkova, Charles University, Prague / Loyola University

"Kate Chopin's 'Juanita': Sexual Magnet or Grotesque?" Susan
Koppelman, Independent Scholar

"Chopin's Stories from the Deluzian Perspective: 'The Storm,' 'Story
of an Hour,' and 'A Respectable Woman,'" Ailee Cho, KAIST (Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)

Roundtable: You Ought to Be In the Canon: How We Helped Kate Chopin In
Moderator: Bernard Koloski, Mansfield University, editor of Approaches to Teaching Chopin's The Awakening, 1988

Thomas Bonner Jr., Xavier University of New Orleans, editor of The Kate Chopin Companion, 1986

Anna Elfenbein, West Virginia University, author of Women on the Color Line, 1989

Barbara C. Ewell, Loyola University of New Orleans, author of the critical study Kate Chopin, 1986

Mary E. Papke, University of Tennessee, author of Verging on the Abyss, 1990

Helen Taylor, Exeter University, United Kingdom, author of Kate Chopin Portraits, 1979

Emily Toth, Louisiana State University, author of the biography Kate Chopin, 1990

Kate Chopin Panels at the 2007 American Literature Association Annual Conference, May 24 to 27, Boston

Reading Kate Chopin in the Town and the Country
Chair: Mary E. Papke, The University of Tennessee

“Reading for Realism in the Land of Local Color,” Thomas L. Morgan, University of Dayton

“So What Does That Kiss Really Mean? Teaching Chopin and Lesbian Moments in the Bible Belt,” Christina Bucher, Berry College, Rome, GA

“Kate Chopin and New Orleans, Past and Present,” Heather Ostman, Empire State College, State University of New York

Kate Chopin: Writing in the World
Chair: Heather Ostman, Empire State College, State University of New York

“Kate Chopin’s Reputation,” Bernard Koloski, Mansfield University of Pennsylvania

“Kate Chopin, Free Love, and ‘Super’-spiritual Influences,” Kathleen Nigro, University of Missouri, St. Louis

“Servitude and ‘A Solitary Soul’: Who Works in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening?” Avis Hewitt, Grand Valley State University

Kate Chopin Panel at the 2006 American Literature Association Annual Conference, May 25–28, San Francisco

“Chopin’s Male Characters and ‘the joy that kills’,” Lizbeth Pereira, Latrobe University, Australia

“Nodding Over Emerson: Kate Chopin and the Relevance of Emersonian Transcendentalism in a Post-Romantic Age,” William Moss, Wake Forest University

The Better-Known Chopin: Making It New
Chair: Barbara Ewell, Loyola University, New Orleans

“Mr. Emerson Comes to St. Louis: ‘Inspiration’ and Kate Chopin,” Kathleen Butterly Nigro, University of Missouri, St. Louis

“Situated Knowledge in Kate Chopin’s ‘Desiree’s Baby,’” Martha Sledge, Marymount Manhattan College

“From Gilded Cage to Pigeonièrre: Race, Sexuality, and Architecture in The Awakening,” Catherine Michna, Boston College

The Lesser-Known Chopin: What We've Missed
Chair: Bernard Koloski, Mansfield University of Pennsylvania

“The way they ‘really talked to each other’: Kate Chopin’s Translations,” Veronica Kirk-Clausen, University of California, Santa Cruz

“Chopin’s Lyrical Anodyne for the Modern Soul,” Jane F. Thrailkill, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

“What Kate Chopin Knew About Domestic Violence: ‘In Sabine,’” Emily Toth, Louisiana State University

Kate Chopin Panel at the 2005 American Literature Association Annual Conference, May 26–29, Boston

The New Kate Chopin: Explicating “Sexy” in the Twenty-First Century: A Roundtable Discussion

Moderator: Avis Hewitt, Grand Valley State University

Emily Toth, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge

John May, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge

Bernard Koloski, Mansfield University of Pennsylvania

Anne Goodwyn Jones, University of Missouri at Rolla

Suzanne Disheroon-Green, Northwestern State University of Louisiana

Kate Chopin in university textbooks

From everything we can tell, Kate Chopin’s work continues to appear in university textbooks of all sorts—in American literature textbooks, of course, but also in textbooks for “Introduction to Literature” courses and for courses that combine literature and writing. One of the latest examples is the third edition of Reading Literature and Writing Argument by Missy James and Alan P. Merickle (Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008). The book contains “Désirée’s Baby” and “The Storm.

A new film based on a Kate Chopin scholar’s work

Emily Toth, who has written about Kate Chopin for many years and who writes the “Ms. Mentor” column for The Chronicle of Higher Education, also wrote a biography of Grace Metalious. Peyton Place by Grace Metalious celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year. You can read about Emily in the March, 2006, Vanity Fair, and in a year or so you should be able to see the film version of her biography of Grace Metalious, which will star Sandra Bullock.

About this web site

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