Chopin and Catholicism in America, 1850–1904

Abstract

This chapter briefly outlines Chopin’s religious biography within a predominantly Catholic environment, as she grew up in a religious family and culture during a time when Catholicism underwent an enormous shift in the United States. This chapter distinguishes her from her Catholic literary peers, who, from 1840 to 1920, infused much of their fiction with Catholic doctrine and pious examples of womanhood. But Chopin appears not to have been interested in converting or preaching to readers; instead, she seems to have been a woman of her time. For Chopin, though she does not appear to have had a particular, intentional religious or social agenda, the fascination with human lives and drama took precedence and her observations and artistic renderings of human behavior subordinated any kind of religious directive within her fiction. Therefore, this chapter demonstrates how, in the midst of this massive shift in Catholic and American culture, she wrote in response to her world, reflective of the people who lived and breathed within it.