Nathaniel Hawthorne in the College Classroom

In addition to a Preface by the noted Hawthorne scholar Larry J. Reynolds [University Distinguished Professor and Thomas Franklin Mayo Professor of Liberal Arts Department of English Texas A&M University] the contributors include well-known and rising teacher-scholars who offer theoretical and pedagogical approaches to Hawthorne’s four published novels and a wide range of his short stories.

The specially commissioned essays are designed to help teachers meet students at points of genuine interest and need. They incorporate biographical, literary, historical, and multidisciplinary scholarship. The studies are further grounded in specific contexts such as literature surveys, interdisciplinary humanities courses, upper division literature seminars, and study abroad courses.

Special emphasis is given to the issues of gender, science, and visual culture (including film adaptations). Offering both theoretical and practical classroom resources, this anthology confirms the continued vitality of Hawthorne’s work – his critiques of religious and moral authority are more relevant than ever in today’s global political environment – even as it showcases how today’s “Hawthorne” is more of a diverse amalgam of texts and perspectives than ever before. Given its diversity of approaches and authors (including essayists from Germany, Israel, and Sweden), Nathaniel Hawthorne in the College Classroom charts new paths for reading and teaching Hawthorne in the 21st century.

Contents:

Preface Larry J. Reynolds;

NEW Introduction to this edition by Sam Coale and Christopher Diller;

Part 1: The Romances Sophia and Nathaniel Hawthorne: Personal Performance and Cultural Construction of Gender in The Scarlet Letter, Patricia D. Valenti; The Missing Man of The Scarlet Letter Richard Kopley ; Giving Shape to Gloom; or, Keeping it Real in The House of the Seven Gables, Robert T. Tally, Jr; Approaching The Blithedale Romance through the History of the Book Sarah Wadsworth; Teaching Hawthorne’s Romances and/in the History of American, Sexuality Zachary Lamm; Hawthorne’s Reconceptualization of the European Gothic Tradition, Monika Elbert.

Part 2: The Short Stories The “Minister’s Black Veil” and Islam in the Core Curriculum Rosemary, Mims Fisk; Teaching “The Minister’s Black Veil” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” as Frame Stories, Gabriela Serrano; Sympathies of the Heart in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”, Jonathan Murphy; The Eco-Gothic in the Short Fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Jennifer Schell; Hawthorne, Kant, and Buber in an Interdisciplinary Humanities Classroom, Nancy Bunge; Science and Technology in Hawthorne’s Short Fiction, Scott Ellis; Cautionary Hawthorne: Science, Ethics, and God in the Teaching of “The Birth-Mark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter”, Aaron Cobb and Eric Sterling.

Part 3: Institutional and International Contexts High School–College Partnerships and the Teaching of Hawthorne, Jason Courtmanche; The Scarlet Letter in a Community College Composition Course, Chikako D. Kumamoto; Hawthorne’s Demanding Skepticism, T. Gregory Garvey; A Post-Nationalist Approach to Teaching Hawthorne, Ivonne M. Garcia; Hawthorne and the Brontës: A Transatlantic Senior Capstone Course, Donald Ross; Studying Hawthorne Abroad: The Italian Writings and Their Contexts, Sandra Hughes.

Part 4: Performative and Visual Contexts Reading Disability in Hawthorne: Enabling Student Analyses of The Scarlet Letter, Sari Altschuler; Puppets, Automata, and Machinery: Counter-Currents of Transnational Romanticism in Hawthorne’s Short Fiction, Michael Demson; Pre-cinematic Visual Spectacles in The House of the Seven Gables, Alberto Gabriele; Being Viewed and Viewing Oneself: Gendered Discourse in Two Contemporary Hawthorne Adaptations, Nassim Balestrini; Hawthorne, Scientific Anxiety, and American Mad Scientist Films, Walter Squire; Teaching Gender Dynamics in The Scarlet Letter through Film Adaptations Elisabeth Herion Sarafidis and Danuta Fjellestad.