Awakening of Self-Consciousness in American Women Writer's Fiction at the Turn of the Century

"I you ask what offices [women] may fill, I reply - any" (Fuller in Inge 1978:224). Margaret Fuller's famous statement was a provocation in her own time and it is a debated question of our days, too. The present thesis tries to present an important period in the history of the "woman question", more exactly the development of this movement at the turn of the 20`hcentury. It began with Margaret Fuller's bold critical studies and articles and was followed by a series of literary works written by women. Kate Chopin, Gertrude Stein and Edith Wharton are the first women writers rising to prominence in that age. Through their heroines' lives we can get a picture of not only women but of the political and social background of their lives.