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

A Deconstructionist Critique of Chopins The AwakeningThe multiplicity of meanings and (re)interpretations informing dilettanteal studies of The Awakening reveal a legend 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 wander in abysses of solitude,138), likewise the deconstructionist reading of a text emphasizes fluidity over structure A text consists of words inscribed in and inextricable from the unnumberable discourses that inform it from the point of view of deconstruction, the boundaries between any given text and that larger text we call language are always shifting, (297). From this perspective, the reader/critic opens the doors of interpretation instead of narrowing their focus to any singular, exclusionary reading, and exposes the deconstruction at work within the text itself. Whether defined as feminist martyr, metaphorical les bian, the exulting image of social transcendence or a broken bird beating the air above . . . circlin...