English 177-2 - Winter, 2017

Study of an Individual Author

Topic: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Class Information

Instructor: Baaki, Brian
CRN: 22910
Time: MWF 12:10-1:00
Location: 125 Olson

Description

This course will focus on nearly thirty years of literary production by Nathaniel Hawthorne, from his early short story “My Kinsman Major Molineux” (1831) through his final published novel The Marble Faun (1860). Unlike contemporaries Edgar Allan Poe, Henry David Thoreau, and Herman Melville, Hawthorne’s literary abilities were fully acknowledged in his lifetime, and his reputation only grew after his death. In this course, we will examine the major works upon which that reputation stands. Beginning with such short stories as “My Kinsman Major Molineux,” “Young Goodman Brown” (1835), “Wakefield” (1835), “The Minister’s Black Veil” (1835), “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” (1837), “The Birthmark” (1843), and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” (1844), we will end the class by reading Hawthorne’s final four novels or “romances”: The Scarlet Letter (1850), The House of the Seven Gables (1851), The Blithedale Romance (1852), and The Marble Faun. We will use the rich content of these works, and the historical contexts from which they emerged, as a springboard to develop the practice and skills of literary scholarship.

Grading

Students will be required to present on a secondary source, as well as an archival document, and submit a final term paper. For the final research paper, all critical and theoretical approaches will be encouraged.

Texts

Selected Tales, Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
The House of the Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Blithedale Romance, Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Marble Faun, Nathaniel Hawthorne