The Office of The Scarlet Letter
The Office of The Scarlet Letter

Author: Sacvan Bercovitch

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 9780801845840

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"Goes a long way to proving that any literary masterpiece, read with sympathy and intelligence, works to re-establish the connections between the work of art and the life and thought of its time." -- James R. Mellow, Times Literary Supplement

The Office of Scarlet Letter
The Office of Scarlet Letter

Author: Sacvan Bercovitch

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 1351478184

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"The Scarlet Letter has proved our most enduring classic," writes Sacvan Bercovitch, "because it is the liberal example par excellence of art as ideological mimesis. To understand the office of the A is to see how culture empowers symbolic form, including forms of dissent, and how symbols participate in the dynamics of culture, including the dynamics of constraint."With an approach that both reflects and contests developments in literary studies, Bercovitch explores these connections from two perspectives: first, he examines a historical reading of the novel's unities; and then, a rhetorical analysis of key mid-nineteenth-century issues, at home and abroad. In order to highlight the relation between rhetoric and history, he focuses on the point at which the scarlet letter does its office at last, the moment when Hester decides to come home to America.In The Office of "The Scarlet Letter," Bercovitch argues that the process by which the United States usurped "America" for itself, symbolically, is also the process by which liberalism established political and economic dominance. In the course of his study, he offers sustained discussions of Hawthorne's irony and ambiguity, of aesthetic and social strategies of cohesion, and of the conundrums of liberal dissent. Winner of the Modern Language Association's James Russell Lowe prize, The Office of "The Scarlet Letter" provides a theoretical redefinition of the function of symbolism in culture and an exemplary literary-ideological reading of a major text.

The Rites of Assent
The Rites of Assent

Author: Sacvan Bercovitch

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-01-14

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 1317796195

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The Rites of Assent examines the cultural strategies through which "America" served as a vehicle simultaneously for diversity and cohesion, fusion and fragmentation. Taking an ethnographic, cross-cultural approach, The Rites of Assent traces the meanings and purposes of "America" back to the colonial typology of mission, and specifically (in chapters on Puritan rhetoric, Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards, and the movement from Revival to Revolution) to the legacy of early New England.

The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter

Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Publisher: Ignatius Press

Published: 2012-08-30

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 168149549X

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Edited by Joseph Pearce Contributors to this volume: Jennifer Bonsell Richard Harp Regis Martin Mary R. Reichardt Aaron Urbanczyk A key figure in the development of American literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne was also profoundly influenced by his ancestors and the Christianity that underscored their Puritan heritage. A literary classic, The Scarlet Letter presents a profound meditation on the nature of sin, repentance, and redemption, and on how such Christian concepts may be integrated into American democracy. This edition features an introduction by Aaron Urbanczyk, chair of the literature department at Southern Catholic College, that explores themes in ""The Custom-House"" that guide the reader's interpretation of the text of the novel, and several critical articles on the work's major symbols and Christian themes. Mary R. Reichardt, the editor of this edition, is a professor of literature in the Catholic Studies department at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul MN.

Manga Classics: The Scarlet Letter
Manga Classics: The Scarlet Letter

Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Publisher: Manga Classics

Published:

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13:

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Nathaniel Hawthorne's powerful tale of forbidden love, shame and revenge comes to life in this manga presentation of the classic story. When Hester Prynne bears an illegitimate child, she is introduced to the ugliness, complexity, and ultimately the strength of the human spirit. Though set in a Puritan community during the Colonial American period, the moral dilemmas of personal responsibility and consuming emotions of guilt, anger, loyalty and revenge are timeless. This beautiful manga retelling of Hawthorne's classic American novel is faithfully adapted by Crystal S. Chan and features stunning artwork by SunNeko Lee which will give old and new readers alike a fresh insight into this tragic saga of Puritan America.

The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter

Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Publisher:

Published: 2011-03

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13: 9781611044980

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Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston during the years 1642 to 1649, The Scarlet Letter tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives through an adulterous affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. The story begins during the summer of 1642, near Boston, Massachusetts, in a Puritan village. A young woman, Hester Prynne, has been led from the town prison with her infant daughter in her arms. On the breast of her gown is "a rag of scarlet The Scarlet Letter cloth" that "assumed the shape of a letter." It is the uppercase letter "A." The Scarlet Letter "A" represents the act of adultery that she has committed, and it is to be a symbol of her sin-a badge of shame-for all to see. The Scarlet Letter was published as a novel in the spring of 1850 by Ticknor & Fields, beginning Hawthorne's most lucrative period as a writer. When he delivered the final pages to Fields in February 1850, Hawthorne said that "some portions of the book are powerfully written" but doubted it would be popular. In fact, the book was an instant best-seller though, over fourteen years, it brought its author only $1,500. Its initial publication brought wide protest from natives of Salem, who did not approve of how Hawthorne had depicted them in his introduction "The Custom-House." A 2,500-copy second edition of The Scarlet Letter included a preface by Hawthorne dated March 30, 1850, that stated he had decided to reprint his introduction "without the change of a word... The only remarkable features of the sketch are its frank and genuine good-humor... As to enmity, or ill-feeling of any kind, personal or political, he utterly disclaims such motives." The Scarlet Letter was one of the first mass-produced books in America. Into the mid-nineteenth century, bookbinders of home-grown literature typically hand-made their books and sold them in small quantities. The first mechanized printing of The Scarlet Letter, 2,500 volumes, sold out within ten days, and was widely read and discussed to an extent not much experienced in the young country up until that time.