American Realist Fictions of Marriage ─ From Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton to Frances Harper, Pauline Hopkins

American Realist Fictions of Marriage: From Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton to Frances Harper, Pauline Hopkins intervenes in the field of American literary realism by arguing that selected marriage fiction of Kate Chopin, Frances Harper, Pauline Hopkins, Williams Dean Howells, Emma Dunham-Kelly, and Edith Wharton interrogates the possibility of harmonious societies based on racial, gender, and social equality. Megda (1891), An Imperative Duty (1891), Iola Leroy (1892), The Awakening (1899), Contending Forces (1900), and The House of Mirth (1905) express suspicion about marriage and its potential consequences. These six novels use marriage as a forum to explore the problem of the “color line,” sexism, and class difference that promoted social boundaries. These novels demonstrate how choices about marriage made by female protagonists are metaphorical representations of social equality while simultaneously revealing threats to that ideal vision. In a wider context, American Realist Fictions of Marriage aims to widen the conventional narrow focus on canonical realist writers by highlighting intellectual exchanges that were taking place between traditional and non-traditional writers about marriage.

A native of Chicago, Illinois, Kelli V. Randall earned a Ph.D. in English from Emory University in 2007. She served as Assistant Professor of English at Salisbury University from 2007 to 2010. From 2010 to 2011, Dr. Randall served as Acting Chair and Associate Professor of the Department of English and Modern Languages at University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Currently, Dr. Randall serves as Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Liberal Arts and Humanities, and SACSCOC Liaison at Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina. She is a tenured Professor of English within the Department of English and Foreign Language at Livingstone College. Dr. Randall’s scholarly research interests include “race” and realism, voodoo in writings by women of color, and the role of HBCUs in the twenty-first century. Dr. Randall has previously taught English at Dekalb Technical College, Georgia Perimeter College, Spelman College, Wor-Wic Community College, and Rowan-Cabarrus Community College.