Dissertation Information for Don LathamNAME:
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SCHOOL: ADVISORS: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected Title: Hawthorne's "Coup de Theatre": Theatricality and self-performance in the American romances Abstract: Throughout his fiction, Nathaniel Hawthorne demonstrates an interest in theatricality and its relation to identity in general and to authorship in particular. His fictional world reflects widespread theatricality not because he is exceptionally fond of the theatrum mundi trope, but because he wishes to explore the pervasive theatricality of nineteenth-century American society, a theatricality closely tied to the projection of individual identity. In his works, Hawthorne suggests that a theatrical approach to life has mixed consequences: it can undermine the integrity of selfhood and the integrity of community, but it can also sustain selfhood and community by allowing the individual to construct a functional identity in the midst of an ever-changing society. The key to to maintaining one's integrity is to acknowledge the theatricality of the self and to balance theatricality with sincerity and sympathy. Although theatrical tropes can be found throughout Hawthorne's fiction, I focus on his three American romances--The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, and The Blithedale Romance--because these romances constitute the major works of Hawthorne's mature phase, and, as sustained literary performances, they provide special insight into the theatricality of authorship and of the public self in antebellum America. |
MPACT Scores for Don LathamA = 1 Advisors and Advisees Graph |