Nathaniel Hawthorne: Tradition and RevolutionCambridge University Press, 28 giu 1991 - 284 pagine This is the first analysis of the fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne and his perception of history. In his study, Charles Swann examines the whole of Hawthorne's literary career and gives proper weight to the unfinished work. Hawthorne saw history as a struggle between the authoritative claims of tradition on the one hand and the conflicting but equally valid claims of the desires for revolutionary transformation on the other. To evaluate Hawthorne's view of history, Swann provides close readings of such key shorter works as Alice Doane's Appeal and Main Street, as well as the most detailed analysis to date of the unfinished works The American Claimant Mss and The Elixir of Life Mss (two works which exemplify the temptations of tradition and the exhilaration of the revolutionary moment). This study asks us to explore how Hawthorne presents and interprets history through his fiction: for example, the history of crucial sins of the past (and the contemporary placing of such sins) in Alice Doane's Appeal, the problematic nature of the American Revolution in The Elixir of Life Mss, and the role of society in The Scarlet Letter. Swann's innovative study will be of interest to students and scholars of American literature, history, cultural studies, and literary criticism. |
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Alice Doane section Alice Doane's Appeal American Revolution Ancestral Footstep appear argue attempt audience authority beginning Blithedale Romance chapter character claims clear Colacurcio confession Cotton Mather Coverdale criticism crucial Custom-House daguerreotype Daguerreotypist desire Donatello edition Elixir ending England English Ethan Brand Etherege example feel Felton fiction Fortunate Fall fragment Giaour Grimshawe Hawthorne Hawthorne's Hester Hilda Holgrave Holgrave's human idea imagination immortality interpretation irony Kenyon least Library of America London look Main-Street Major Molineux Marble Faun matter meaning Miriam modern moral mystery narrative narrator Nathaniel Hawthorne nature Norton novel original passage past perhaps political present problem problematic Puritan Pyncheon question radical reader reality revolution revolutionary Salem Scarlet Letter scene sculpture seems sense Septimius Septimius's social spirit story suggests symbolic tale tells things tradition tragedy translation truth unfinished University Press Unpardonable Sin whole writing