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The Practice and Theory of Storytelling: Nathaniel Hawthorne and Walter Benjamin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2009

C. S. B. Swann
C. S. B. Swann
Affiliation:
Lecturer in American Literature in the Department of American Studies at the University of Keele,Staffordshire.
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Extract

“ What is he? ” murmurs one gray shadow of my forefathers to the other. “ A writer of story-books ! What kind of business in life, what mode of glorifying God, or being serviceable to mankind in his day and generation, may that be? ” (Hawthorne, “ The Custom-House”

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , August 1978 , pp. 185 - 202
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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References

1 Hawthorne, Nathaniel, The Scarlet Letter, Centenary Edition (Columbus, Ohio: State University Press, 1962)Google Scholar., p. 10. All subsequent references to Hawthorne's writings will be based on the Centenary Edition and will be placed parenthetically in the text, using the following abbreviations: for Twice-Told Tales (1974), TTT; for Mosses from an Old Manse , MOM; for The Marble Faun (1974), MF; and for The Snow-Image and Vncollected Tales (1968), SI.

2 Borges, J.L., “Nathaniel Hawthorne,” in Other Inquisitions, with an introduction by James E. Irby and translated by Simms, Ruth L. C. (London: Souvenir Press, 1973), pp. 47–56.Google Scholar.

3 3 “ Passages from a Relinquished Work ” was originally published as “ The Story Teller. No. I ” and “ The Story Teller. No. II. The Village Theatre ” in the New-England Magazine, November and December 1834. No. II originally included “ Mr. Higginbotham's Catastrophe.”.

4 Baym, Nina, The Shape of Hawthorne's Career (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1977), p. 40.Google Scholar.

5 See my article “ ‘ Alice Doane's Appeal ’ or, How to Tell a Story ” in Literature and History, No. 5 (Spring 1977), pp. 4–25.

6 Jameson, Frederic, Marxism and Form (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 1971). PP 77–78 80Google Scholar.

7 Pike and his wife live happily ever after, but it is one of the charms of the story that a certain financial realism enters in. Mr. Higginbotham doesn't do anything so romantic as hand over his fortune to his saviour. While Dominicus may get the hand of the niece in marriage, Mr. Higginbotham leaves his money to his grandchildren and only the interest is allowed to Dominicus. And they don't all live happily ever after: Higginbotham “ caps the climax of his favours ” by dying.

8 Borges, , pp. 53–54Google Scholar.

9 Herodotus, , Book III, Chap. XIV, translated by George Rawlinson, 2 Vols. (London: J. M. Dent/Everyman edition, 1949), I, 216.Google Scholar.

10 The Essayes of Michel, Lord of Montaigne, translated by Florio, John, edited and with an introduction by Morley, Henry (London: Routledge, 1886), p. 3.Google Scholar.