Updike's version: rewriting The Scarlet Letter

Abstract

In this full-length critical analysis of trilogy - A Month of Sundays, Roger's Version and S - Schiff demonstrates how Hawthorn's classic novel of adulterous love and divided selves has become an American myth, and how Updike, in his trilogy, has sought to expand, update and satirise that myth. The volumes that make up the trilogy engage in a dialogue with Hawtorne's novel, commenting upon and altering the original story. To understand the nature of this dialogue, Schiff employs a methodology specifically suited to mythical method, in which special attention is given to reader expectation, parody, point of view and principles of fragmentation and condensation. Updike's Version covers new ground in Updike studies, revealing how the intertextual dialogue between Updike and Hawthorne is far more complex and extensive than has yet been acknowledged. It provides close and detailed readings of the novels and should be of importance to students and scholars of John Updike, Nathaniel Hawthorne's text and American literature in general.