Abstract:
This project examines ways in which the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne has been appropriated, inscribed, and variously intertextualized in the writings of a collection of twentieth and twenty-first century authors. From William Faulkner's work in the 1920's to Jhumpa Lahiri in the new millennium, the project demonstrates Hawthorne's lasting impact on culture. Another thing this project demonstrates is that attempts to place Hawthorne at the center of a traditional "school" whose direction is unilateral are inherently limiting. This work examines Nathaniel Hawthorne's intertextual influence in the work of John Updike, William Faulkner, John Fowles, Maryse Condé, Suzan Lori-Parks, Jhumpa Lahiri and Bharati Mukherjee. By emphasizing an intertextual approach, this project demonstrates that once texts are placed in conversation, individually, those texts can never be read the same way again. Intertextualities move not just forward, but backward. They are not just Anglo-American but global. Finally, this project serves to remind us of the place of reading and writing about literature in our cultural lives. As a way to teach critical thinking, as a mode of understanding how we lived historically, how we live today, and how we may choose to live tomorrow, narrative matters.
