American Literature

Week 9: The Symbolists

Please READ:

• Hawthorne 236-246
• Melville 249-252

Please have Moby Dick finished by this week. We will be discussing Hawthorne and Melville both from the perspective of the works in the textbook and in terms of their novels.

CONSIDER for discussion:

• Compare the use of the narrative voice in the Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick. How are the two similar? How are they different?
• Compare the structure of The Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick. How are they different? What are the implications of the structures of the two books for their ability to convey content?
• What is meant by calling these authors “Symbolists”? Do these works have hidden meanings? Are they allegorical? Or is there some other sense in which the term is used?
• What is the point of “Young Goodman Brown”? What experience does it define, and what does it create for you as a reader?