The Scarlet Letter (For Further Study)

For Further Study

• Lauren Gail Berlant, The Anatomy of National Fantasy: Hawthorne, Utopia, and Everyday Life, University of Chicago Press, 1991.

  A discussion of the connections between The Scarlet Letter and the politics and political character of the United States in the mid-nineteenth century, including the concept of utopia as it was applied to American democracy.

• Richard H. Brodhead, The School of Hawthorne, Oxford University Press, 1986.

  Explores the critical reputation of Hawthorne and how the prevailing literary thought of the day helped create a "school" around his work that led to his inclusion in the literary canon. A good history of Hawthorne's critical reputation.

• Critical Essays on Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter', edited by David B. Kesterson, G. K. Hall, 1988.

  A collection of previously published criticism on Hawthorne's novel.

• Critical Response to Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter,' edited by Gary Scharnhorst, Greenwood Press, 1992.

  Another collection of critical essays by several critics on the novel.

• Louise A. DeSalvo, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harvester Press, 1987.

  A feminist analysis of Hawthorne's work which decries the misogyny in his texts.

• Kenneth Marc Harris, Hypocrisy and Self-deception in Hawthorne's Fiction, University Press of Virginia, 1988.

  A study which focuses on Hawthorne's preoccupation with hypocrisy, relating it to the author's fascination with the Puritans.

• Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarkt Letter' edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House Publishers, 1986.

  An edition of the novel that contains a helpful introduction by a noted literary critic.

• New Essays on 'The Scarlet Letter,' edited by Michael J. Colacurcio, Cambridge University Press, 1985.

  A collection of original critical assessments of Hawthorne's novel.

• Leland S. Person, Aesthetic Headaches: Women and a Masculine Poetics in Poe, Melville, and Hawthorne, University of Georgia Press, 1988.

  Person's analysis of these authors' difficulties in creating artistic depictions of female characters suggests the need for a "masculine poetics." Devotes a whole chapter to The Scarlet Letter.

• Larry J. Reynolds, "The Scarlet Letter and Revolutions Abroad," American Literature, Vol. 77, 1985, pp 44-67.

  Reynolds shows how Hawthorne viewed and was influenced by the European revolutions that began in 1848.

• Alfred F. Rosa, Salem, Transcendentalism, and Hawthorne, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1980.

  A study of several of Hawthorne's historical influences, including the witch trials in Massachusetts and the new Transcendentalist school of religious thought.

• Charles Ryskamp, "The New England Sources of The Scarlet Letter," American Literature XXX, November 1959, pp. 257-272.

  A look at some of the historical events that may have inspired the plot and writing of Hawthorne's novel.

• Charles Swann, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Tradition and Revolution, Cambridge University Press, 1991.

  A literary analysis of Hawthorne's work that offers much historical background which can be applied to several readings of the author's work.

• Margaret Olofson Thickstun, Fictions of the Feminine: Puritan Doctrine and the Representation of Women Cornell University Press, 1988.

  An excellent summary of how Puritan views of women have influenced literary works such as The Scarlet Letter. Twentieth Century Interpretations of 'The Scarlet Letter': A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by John C. Gerber, Prentice-Hall, 1968.

• A collection of important and groundbreaking essays on Hawthorne's novel which discuss the novel's structure and themes and Hawthorne's technique and sources. Includes bibliography.