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Hawthorne's Literary Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Charles Howell Foster
Charles Howell Foster*
Affiliation:
University of Iowa
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Extract

Like every original artist, Hawthorne may be approached in a variety of ways, and each of these ways will add something to the ultimate picture of his mind and art. Most of the work that scholars have done on Hawthorne, however, has been historical and biographical, and the result has been that Hawthorne the artist and thinker has been relegated to the background. This is particularly regrettable when one remembers that he was the most complete artist of the New England renaissance, and in The Scarlet Letter the author of a book which as art transcends all other American novels. It is to fill out the contemporary conception of Hawthorne that his theory of art is here considered as it may be pieced together from allegory, preface, and chance remark. Focusing attention on his ideals in art makes certain the meaning of the prefaces, and an investigation of his doctrine of the artist gives an insight into his method of achieving his ideal. In brief, to study Hawthorne's literary theory is to discover the intellectual basis of his art, and to see his work from the inside is to arrive at a fresh sense of his intention. It was Goethe's conviction that the critic should first of all ask what the author had intended. If the following investigation makes for clarity, it should furnish an opportunity for a new appraisal of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 57 , Issue 1 , March 1942 , pp. 241 - 254
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1942

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References

Note 1 in page 241 This paper was accepted before F. O. Matthiessen's chapters on Hawthorne in American Renaissance were available for consideration.

1a Works, iv, p. 241, “The Hall of Fantasy.” All references in this paper are to The Complete Writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Old Manse edition (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1900). This edition is more nearly complete than the Riverside. Hawthorne in the version of “The Hall of Fantasy” published in The Pioneer mentions Alcott, Bryant, Cooper, Emerson, and Poe, but his remarks are valuable chiefly from a biographical standpoint. See Harold P. Miller's article on the subject, “Hawthorne Surveys his Contemporaries,” American Literature (May, 1940), pp. 228–235.

Note 2 in page 242 Works, xiii, “Circe's Palace,” pp. 366–410.

Note 3 in page 242 Works, v, “P's Correspondence,” p. 178.

Note 4 in page 242 Works, xx, pp. 402–403, Notes of Travel, ii.

Note 5 in page 242 Works, x, p. 237, The Marble Faun, ii. See, for instance, Works, vii p. xxiii, “Author's Preface,” The House of The Seven Gables: “When romances do really teach anything, or produce any effective operation, it is usually through a far more subtile process than the ostensible one.”

Note 6 in page 243 Ibid., p. 184.

Note 7 in page 243 Works, xxi, pp. 267–268, Notes of Travel, iii.

Note 8 in page 243 Works, xviii, p. 441, American Notebooks.

Note 9 in page 243 Works, v, p. 294, “The Artist of the Beautiful.”

Note 10 in page 243 Works, v, pp. 91–92, “Drowne's Wooden Image.”

Note 11 in page 243 Works, i, p. 305, “Fancy's Show Box.”

Note 12 in page 243 Works, iv, p. 80, “A Select Party.”

Note 13 in page 243 Works, ix, p. 51, The Marble Faun.

Note 14 in page 244 Works, iii, p. 54, “The Great Stone Face.”

Note 15 in page 244 Ibid., p. 55.

Note 16 in page 244 Ibid., p. 54.

Note 17 in page 244 Ibid., p. 55.

Note 18 in page 244 Works, v, p. 316, “The Artist of the Beautiful.”

Note 19 in page 244 Works, i, p. 236, “The Prophetic Pictures.”

Note 20 in page 244 Austin Warren notes Hawthorne's classicism in the concluding paragraph of his introduction to Nathaniel Hawthorne (New York, 1934). He suggests that Hawthorne attempted by his definition of Romance something analogous to Aristotle's definition of poetry as more philosophical than history.

Note 21 in page 245 Works, iv, p. 126, “Rappaccini's Daughter.”

Note 22 in page 245 Works, vii, p. xxi, The House of the Seven Gables.

Note 23 in page 245 Works, vii, p. xxx, The Blithedale Romance.

Note 24 in page 245 Works, ix, p. xxii, The Marble Faun, i.

Note 25 in page 245 Works, x, p. 353, The Marble Faun, ii.

Note 26 in page 245 Works, viii, p. xxx, The Blithedale Romance.

Note 27 in page 245 Works, iii, p. xx, “Dedicatory letter to Horatio Bridge.”

Note 28 in page 245 Works, v, p. 316, “The Artist of the Beautiful.”

Note 29 in page 245 Works, vii, p. xxi, The House of the Seven Gables.

Note 30 in page 245 Works, iii, p. xx, “Dedicatory letter to Horatio Bridge.”

Note 31 in page 246 Works, xii, p. xxiii.

Note 32 in page 246 The Faerie Queene, Book i, Canto 4.—This is not to say that Hawthorne was not influenced in his use of symbolism by Spenser. Randall Stewart's excellent article, “Hawthorne and The Faerie Queene,” PQ, xii, 196–206 (April, 1933), indicates Hawthorne's debt.

Note 33 in page 246 Works, v, p. 304, “The Artist of the Beautiful.”

Note 34 in page 247 Ibid., p. 310.

Note 35 in page 247 Ibid., p. 296.

Note 36 in page 247 Works, v, p. 324, “The Artist of the Beautiful.”

Note 37 in page 248 Works, iv, p. 125, “Rappaccini's Daughter.”

Note 38 in page 248 Ibid.

Note 39 in page 248 Works, i, p. liv, “Author's Preface to Twice-Told Tales.”

Note 40 in page 248 Works, iv, p. 126, “Rappaccini's Daughter.”

Note 41 in page 248 Works, vi, pp. 52–53, “The Custom House.”

Note 42 in page 248 Fields, J. T., Yesterdays with Authors, p. 63 (Boston, 1871).

Note 43 in page 249 Works, iv, p. 90, “A Select Party.”

Note 44 in page 249 Works, v, p. 183, “P's Correspondence.”

Note 45 in page 249 Works, xix, pp. 416–417, Notes of Travel, I.

Note 46 in page 250 Works, xviii, p. 407, The American Notebooks.

Note 47 in page 250 Works, xv, p. 124, Dr. Grimshawe's Secret.

Note 48 in page 250 Works, vii, p. 56, The House of the Seven Gables.

Note 49 in page 250 Works, xi, p. 196, Our Old Home.

Note 50 in page 251 Works, v, pp. 98–99, “Drowne's Wooden Image.”

Note 51 in page 251 Works, v, p. 245, “Passages from a Relinquished Work.”

Note 52 in page 251 Works, v, p. 188, “P's Correspondence.”

Note 53 in page 251 Works, v, p. 326, “The Artist of the Beautiful.”

Note 54 in page 251 Works, v, p. 330, “The Artist of the Beautiful.”

Note 55 in page 251 Works, i, p. 241, “The Prophetic Pictures.”

Note 56 in page 251 Works, xvii, p. 239, “Hints to Young Ambition.”

Note 57 in page 251 Ibid., p. 241.

Note 58 in page 251 Works, xvii, p. 242, “Hints to Young Ambition.”

Note 59 in page 251 Ibid., p. 243.

Note 60 in page 252 Ibid., pp. 240–241.

Note 61 in page 252 Works, v, p. 186, “P's Correspondence.”

Note 62 in page 252 Ibid., p. 298.

Note 63 in page 252 Works, v, pp. 299–300, “The Artist of the Beautiful.”

Note 64 in page 252 Works, i, pp. 226–227, “The Prophetic Pictures.”

Note 65 in page 252 See Hawthorne as Poetry Critic: six unpublished Letters to Lewis Mansfield, Harold Blodgett, in American Literature, p. 180 (May, 1940).

Note 66 in page 252 Works, v, p. 99, “Drowne's Wooden Image.”

Note 67 in page 252 Works, vii, p. 203, The House of the Seven Gables.

Note 68 in page 252 Works, viii, pp. 91–92, The Blithedale Romance.

Note 69 in page 253 Works, x, pp. 70–71, The Marble Faun, ii.

Note 70 in page 253 Works, v, p. 313, “The Artist of the Beautiful.”

Note 71 in page 253 Works, iv, pp. 295–296, “The Procession of Life.”

Note 72 in page 253 Works, iii, p. 60, “The Great Stone Face.”

Note 73 in page 253 Works, v, pp. 1–2, “The New Adam and Eve.”

Note 74 in page 254 Works, v, pp. 219–220, “Earth's Holocaust.”

Note 75 in page 254 Works, iv, p. 258, “The Hall of Fantasy.”