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Across the Canon: Hawthorne, Morrison, and the Freedom of a Broken Law
Author(s) -
Nordlund Marcus
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
orbis litterarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.109
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1600-0730
pISSN - 0105-7510
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0730.1999.tb01939.x
Subject(s) - dialectic , canon , trace (psycholinguistics) , rewriting , literature , philosophy , intertextuality , order (exchange) , art , epistemology , linguistics , computer science , finance , economics , programming language
In the light of the recent canon debate in the USA, I examine a previously unknown intertextual connection between Nathaniel Hawthorne and Toni Morrison, in order to trace an instructive dialectical affinity between Morrison's express desire to “enhance canon readings without enshrining them” and the new demands on critical practice. I argue that her grafting of key aspects of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter into Sula (an exuberant black feminist rewriting of the literary Father) can be seen as an exemplary form of modern canonical reinscription , with important implications for the way critics should read canonical critics.