Hawthorne and Literary Nationalism

Abstract

mHE MOST obvious literary influence on Hawthorne is the I work of Sir Walter Scott. Scott's influence on Hawthorne, in all its main aspects, has been recognized since G. E. Woodberry's Nathaniel Hawthorne.1 We now realize, too, that Hawthorne's early practice conforms to a critical demand that American materials be treated in the manner of Scott. Scott's work had a great influence on American literary theory in general, because combined significantly with the patriotic nationalism of American writers and, as G. Harrison Orians has said, converted the demand for nationalism into a quest for Scott-like ingredients in American life.2 By I825 the success of this quest was apparent.3 Hawthorne started out in his treatment of historical materials very much as current literary theory prescribed, but he developed away from and modified the theory which had directed his early work. To overlook the influence of current literary theory and fashion upon Hawthorne is to attribute to him an unwarranted isolation; to overlook the individuality of the treatment he gave quite ordinary materials is to miss something of his greatness as an artist. It is the purpose of this note to review the connections between Hawthorne's work and the contemnorarv desire for na1 See G. E. Woodberry, NTathaniel Hawthorne (Boston, I902), pp. I25-I26; G. H. Orians, and Hawthorne's Fanshawe, New England Quarterly, XI, 388-394 (June, I938). There is ample evidence of Hawthorne's intimate acquaintance with Scott's work. See Jurian Hawthorne, Hawthorne and His Wife (Boston, i885), I, io5, II, 269; G. P. Lathrop, A Study of Hawthorne (Boston, I876), p. io8, Appendix, pp. 34I, 343; James T. Fields, Yesterdays with Authors (Boston, I879), pp. IoI-Io2; Hawthorne's Works, Riverside ed., VII, passim, VIII, 263-274, 504-508, and passim. 2The Romance Ferment after Waverley, American Literature, III, 409 (Jan., I932). 'Jared Sparks, in an I825 review of ten American novels published within a year, says that he finds it expedient first to settle . . . the peculiarities of the Waverley pattern, of which most of the ten novels are acknowledged copies. He makes an excellent statement of the appeal the imitation of Scott had for his time: . . . the actors in these works have not only a human, but a national, and often a provincial character. . . . The subject of manners and customs is, moreover, one of general interest, and as an adherence to these serves to give individuality to the characters in these narratives, is so far an improvement on the practice of the older novels, and advantageous to the writer. See North American Review, XXI, 78-I04 (July, I825).