Pictorial Cross-Currents between Hawthorne and Atwood: Negotiating with the Dead
This paper analyzes the way in which a contemporary Canadian novelist, Margaret Atwood, uses the work of a canonical nineteenth-century American novelist, Nathaniel Hawthorne, to define her own position as a writer, while at the same time criticizing and transforming her precursor’s reflection on th...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá
2015-06-01
|
| Series: | Perífrasis: Revista de Literatura, Teoría y Crítica |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://revistaperifrasis.uniandes.edu.co/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=218%3Apictorial-cross-currents-between-hawthorne-and-atwood-negotiating-with-the-dead-patricia-simonson-universidad-nacional-de-colombia-&catid=38%3Aindice&lang=es |
| Summary: | This paper analyzes the way in which a contemporary Canadian novelist, Margaret Atwood, uses the work of a canonical nineteenth-century American novelist, Nathaniel Hawthorne, to define her own position as a writer, while at the same time criticizing and transforming her precursor’s reflection on the writer’s task. I identify this process in Atwood’s 1996 novel, Alias Grace: it takes the form of a rewriting of Hawthorne’s most famous novel, The Scarlet Letter. An important connection between the two writers is their common use of visual art to pose, and potentially to resolve, the problems they encounter as artists in a hostile environment.
Este artículo analiza cómo una novelista canadiense contemporánea, Margaret Atwood, utiliza la obra de un novelista norteamericano del siglo diecinueve, Nathaniel Hawthorne, para definir su propia posición como escritora, y también para criticar y transformar la reflexión de su predecesor. Este proceso se da en una novela de 1996, Alias Grace, en forma de una reescritura de la novela más famosa de Hawthorne, La letra escarlata. Una conexión importante entre los dos escritores es su uso del arte visual para plantear, y posiblemente resolver, los problemas que encuentran como artistas en un entorno hostil. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2145-8987 2145-9045 |