SOURCE: Coyne Dyer, Joyce. “Techniques of Distancing in the Fiction of Kate Chopin.” Southern Studies 24, no. 1 (spring 1985): 69-81.

In the following essay, Dyer discusses Chopin's technique of appealing to her readers' prejudices to openly discuss in her short stories topics that were normally considered taboo at the time.

Chopin often made the prejudice of her Southerners (Creoles and Acadians) the subject of her fiction. Madame Carambeau, for instance, “detested dogs, cats, organ-grinders, white servants and children's noises. She despised Americans, Germans and all people of a different faith from her own.”¹ Prejudice often became not only Chopin's topic, but also, curiously, her technique. Chopin relied, almost cynically it seems, on the prejudices of her readership and critics to allow her to talk about female sexuality in a way that otherwise might have been considered offensive or “vulgar.” Along with other important techniques we will examine, Chopin's probably quite...