NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE (1804-1864)
HISTORY:
ECONOMY AND SOCIETY:
IDEOLOGY AND CULTURE:
American Romanticism The individual valued over the group; The subjective valued over the objective; The personal experience valued over reason; The wilderness of nature valued over human-made order; Support for human rights; Elements of the supernatural; Reaction against the negative effects of industrialization (commercialism, hectic pace, lack of conscience); Importance of nature and man’s relationship with it; The human psyche is observed in different manifestations. |
Transcendentalism A sub-genre of Romanticism that developed from Romantic principles but integrated neo-classical views. | Dark Romanticism A sub-genre of Romanticism that developed as a reaction against the light feeling of transcendentalist writing and emphasized the dark and the macabre. |
Neo-classicism: Order Objectivity Nature Self-reliance Transcendent feeling (the reader is transported away from the world). | |
Transcendentalists: – believed that humans, nature, and God are interconnected; – had a close relationship with nature; – celebrated imagination and emotions; – encouraged spiritual well-being over financial well-being. – regarded nature as divine and as a universal organic mediator; – considered that humans possess divinity and wisdom. | Literary themes: Fear of death Revenge Paranoia from guilt/remorse Use of Gothic elements: grotesque characters, situations, Violent events. The bizarre imagination is the place where the fantastic, the demonic, and the insane meet. Nature is dark and eerie; Human is prone to sin and self-destruction. |
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORK