This book takes issue with the tendency in twentieth-century Hawthorne-criticism to blur the distinction between symbolism and allegory. Rejecting the long-standing notion that Hawthorne is a symbolist in allegorical disguise, Ullén argues that allegory is the key to understanding how religion, sexuality, aesthetics and politics are interwoven in Hawthorne's writings. The study presents a model for allegorical interpretation of general applicability, which is brought to bear on each of Hawthorne's mature romances, and on the oft-neglected Wonder Books written for children. An unparalleled analysis of the formal intricacies of Hawthorne's writings, this book is an eloquent plea for the necessity of grounding ideological analysis in aesthetical considerations.
"Our Old Home: A Series of English Sketches" by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a memoir that takes readers into the mind of this beloved writer during his time in England and Scotland. In this book, Hawthorne narrates his experiences working at the American Consulate, as well as his travels through Warwisk, Lichfield, Oxford, and more, all accompanied by his thoughts and commentaries about the state of England's society and citizens.
Metaphors of Confinement: The Prison in Fact, Fiction, and Fantasy offers a historical survey of imaginings of the prison as expressed in carceral metaphors in a range of texts about imprisonment from Antiquity to the present as well as non-penal situations described as confining or restrictive. These imaginings coalesce into a 'carceral imaginary' that determines the way we think about prisons, just as social debates about punishment and criminals feed into the way carceral imaginary develops over time. Examining not only English-language prose fiction but also poetry and drama from the Middle Ages to postcolonial, particularly African, literature, the book juxtaposes literary and non-literary contexts and contrasts fictional and nonfictional representations of (im)prison(ment) and discussions about the prison as institution and experiential reality. It comments on present-day trends of punitivity and foregrounds the ethical dimensions of penal punishment. The main argument concerns the continuity of carceral metaphors through the centuries despite historical developments that included major shifts in policy (such as the invention of the penitentiary). The study looks at selected carceral metaphors, often from two complementary perspectives, such as the home as prison or the prison as home, or the factory as prison and the prison as factory. The case studies present particularly relevant genres and texts that employ these metaphors, often from a historical perspective that analyses development through different periods.
In the summer of 1860 Hawthorne returned to America and prepared for the Atlantic Monthly some sketches of England, which appeared in that magazine in 1862 and 1863, and with others were published in book form in 1863, under the title "Our Old Home." The opening article, "Consular Experiences," gives some curious incidents in his office at Liverpool, and describes queer Americans who came for the consular help. The closing one, "Civic Banquets," affords a glimpse at some of the public social intercourse to which his position introduced him. "Lichfield and Uttoxeter " is devoted largely to Dr. Johnson. Long before, Hawthorne had written for children the story of Johnson's penance in Uttoxeter market. The offense taken by the Uttoxeter people at an article published in Harper's Magazine is mentioned in the " English Note-Books," vol. ii., August 2,1857. " Recollections of a Gifted Woman " gives some notes on Stratford, together with reminiscences of Delia Bacon. In "Yesterdays with Authors" Mr. Fields says: " One of the most difficult matters he had to manage while in England was the publication of Miss Bacon's singular book on Shakespeare. The poor lady, after he had agreed to see the work through the press, broke off all correspondence with him in a storm of wrath, accusing him of pusillanimity in not avowing full faith in her theory; so that, as he told me, so far as her good-will was concerned, he had not gained much by taking the responsibility of her book upon his shoulders. It was a heavy weight for him to bear, in more senses than one, for he paid out of his own pocket the expenses of publication." The other articles of the book describe Warwick, Oxford, Leamington, Boston, Lincoln, some parts of London, and the haunts of Burns.
