Tag Archives: Nathaniel Hawthorne

A House Member’s Scarlet Letter

By Robin Bates | Published: October 11, 2023

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) recently wore a scarlet letter to work. We explore why.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Abortion, Forced birth movement, House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, Nancy Mace, Scarlet Letter | Comments closed

The Great Books as Assimilation Manual

By Robin Bates | Published: September 15, 2021

Phuc Tran’s “Sigh, Gone” describes how great literature helped him negotiate a difficult immigrant experience.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged assimilation, Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky, great books, immigrant experience, immigrants, Phuc Tran, Scarlet Letter, Sigh Gone | Comments closed

Hawthorne Explains the Eternal Sin

By Robin Bates | Published: June 5, 2021

Hawthorne explores what Jesus means by the “eternal sin” in a number of stories, including “Scarlet Letter.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Altar", Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, eternal sin, Ethan Brand, George Herbert, Man of Adamant, Scarlet Letter, Sin | Comments closed

Impeachment and the Scarlet Letter

By Robin Bates | Published: February 9, 2021

“The Scarlet Letter” provides several lessons for Trump’s impeachment trial.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Derangement syndrome, Donald Trump, impeachment, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Scarlet Letter | Comments closed

Hawthorne Understood Mobs

By Robin Bates | Published: January 31, 2021

Hawthorne writes about the kind of mob that invaded the U.S. Capitol in “My Kinsman, Major Molineux.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged 2020 election, Donald Trump, GOP, January 6 insurrection, mob rule, My Kinsman Major Molineux | Comments closed

To Understand America, Read Gothics

By Robin Bates | Published: February 3, 2020

In a course on American supernatural gothic fiction, I argue that Poe pushed back against the Enlightenment and Hawthorne against Puritanism.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Birthmark, Black Cat, Edgar Allan Poe, gothic fiction, Scarlet Letter, Tell-Tale Heart, Young Goodman Brown | Comments closed

Will Trump Turn Us into Goodman Brown?

By Robin Bates | Published: November 4, 2019

The disillusion of Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown may prove to be America’s in a post-Trump world.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged American Dream, Disillusion, Trumpism, Young Goodman Brown | Comments closed

Gothics Speak Truth to Denial

By Robin Bates | Published: July 17, 2019

Thursday Thursday morning I delivered the following talk to Sewanee’s Rotary Club. I entitled it “America’s Obsession with Gothic Fantasy, from Poe to Game of Thrones. When you hear someone mention gothic fantasy or gothic horror, what American stories, movies or television shows come to mind? Before I let you answer that question, let me […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Black Cat, Edgar Allen Poe, Enlightenment, Flannery O'Connor, Game of Thrones, George Martin, Good Country People, gothic fiction, It, John Winthrop, Stephen King, Tell-Tale Heart, Twilight Zone, Young Goodman Brown | Comments closed

British and American Fantasy Contrasted

By Robin Bates | Published: January 12, 2016

An “Atlantic” article argues that British fantasy is richer than American fantasy. I agree that they are different and that there are interesting reasons for those differences–but that American fantasy is vibrant as well.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged C. S. Lewis, Chronicles of Narnia, Edgar Allan Poe, fantasy, J. R. R. Tolkien, Kenneth Grahame, Lord of the Rings, Stephen King, wind in the willows | Comments closed