The Carnivalesque in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter
The Carnivalesque in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter
Author(s): Hossein Pirnajmuddin, Omid AmaniSubject(s): Novel, 19th Century, American Literature
Published by: International University of Sarajevo
Keywords: Nathaniel Hawthorne; The Scarlet Letter; Bakhtin; Carnivalesque; Polyphony; Heteroglossia and Grotesque;
Summary/Abstract: This study sets to examine the applicability of Bakhtin’s theory of the carnivalesque to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. The canonical novel of the American literature published in the middle of the nineteenth century portrays the genesis of the American Puritan culture, while the polyphonic nature of the novel, it is argued, exposes the rifts of and the grotesqueness of this culture.
Journal: Epiphany. Journal of Transdisciplinary Studies
- Issue Year: 6/2013
- Issue No: 1
- Page Range: 104-119
- Page Count: 16
- Language: English