The Awakening is a novel by Kate Chopin, first published in 1899. Set in New Orleans and the Southern Louisiana coast at the end of the nineteenth century, the plot centers around Edna Pontellier and her struggle to reconcile her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood with the prevailing social attitudes of the turn-of-the-century South. It is one of the earliest American novels that focus on women's issues without condescension. The novel's blend of realistic narrative, incisive social commentary, and psychological complexity makes The Awakening a precursor of American modernism and prefigures the works of American novelists such as William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway and echoes the works of contemporaries such as Edith Wharton and Henry James. It can also be considered among the first Southern works in a tradition that would culminate with the modern masterpieces of Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Katherine Anne Porter, and Tennessee Williams.

《觉醒》1899年发表之后，有好几十年遭受谴责，圣路易斯等地的图书馆甚至把它列为禁书。它从上世纪50年代开始受到重视，如今已是经典美国文学作品，并已改编成歌剧演唱。有人指出，《觉醒》的作者凯特·肖邦，作为一名女作家，甚至走在了与她同时代的许多男作家的前面。她毫无顾忌地把妻子不忠实于丈夫描写成一件美好的事情，在这方面她走在了劳伦斯的前面。就创作艺术而言，本书从一开始就被认为是上乘之作。20世纪50年代，著名学者布鲁克斯说许多多产作家一辈子写的东西还不如这本完美的小说。