Hawthorne and the Real

Bicentennial Essays

Author: Millicent Bell
ISBN: 9780814209868

"In this collection commemorating the bicentennial of Hawthorne's birth in 1804, Millicent Bell gathers essays by distinguished scholars and critics that examine the ways in which Hawthorne related himself to the "real" in his own world and expressed that relation in his writing. Radically revising the older view that he was detached from conditions of actual life in 19th-century American society, the authors undertake to show how current social conditions, current events and political movements taking place at a crucial point in American history were an evident part of Hawthorne's consciousness. The essays situate his imaginative writings in a contemporary context of common experience and rediscover a Hawthorne alert to pressing problems of his day, especially slavery, feminism, and reform in general - the very issues that motivated his contemporaries on the eve of the Civil War. Hawthorne was, with his own complicity, long described as a writer of unreal romances (as he preferred to

Publisher: Ohio State University Press
Publish Date: 2005

Subjects: Literary Criticism / American / General

This book is available in the following Community Centers: Black Resource Center (Location: 1B)