F. O. Matthiessen's Modernist Hawthorne (Article)
Title: F. O. Matthiessen's Modernist Hawthorne
Author: Michael Thurston
Abstract: F.O. Matthiessen and Newton Arvin both wrote important scholarship on the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Arvin’s book appearing in 1929 (reviewed by Matthiessen in the New Republic in 1930) and Matthiessen’s book-within-a book, his section on Hawthorne in American Renaissance, in 1941. In their treatment of Hawthorne, these two vital critics of nineteenth-century American literature interestingly diverge. In this essay, I explore the difference between Arvin’s and Matthiessen’s analyses of Hawthorne, and I offer a couple of explanations (his interest in literary modernism and in the interaction of form and context enabled by emerging modes of formalist criticism) for the distinctive turn that Matthiessen’s reading of Hawthorne takes, a turn that puts him at odds with the main current of Arvin’s reading.
Year: 2019
Access Model: subscription
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Nathaniel Hawthorne Review
Publisher: Nathaniel Hawthorne Review

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