Mr. Hooper Wore It for Frado: A Comparative Reading of “The Minister’s Black Veil” and Our Nig

초록

Scholars define Nathaniel Hawthorne as a quintessential New England writer based on his biographical background and his characteristic representation of the region’s geographical and sociocultural traits in his work. That definition assumes Hawthorne’s authorial identity as that of a white male Puritan descendant, and restricts the race-oriented approach to his writing. This essay intends to complicate such a rigidly racialized and regionalized attitude by reading “The Minister’s Black Veil” as a tale of unveiling racism in New England. The racial implication of the ‘blackness’ of the Reverend Mr. Hooper’s veil has not been addressed, which itself testifies to the scholarly prejudice towards Hawthorne’s artistic range. This essay sheds light on that implication as it discusses “Black Veil” along with another book set in the same place—Milford, New Hampshire—and deals with the same racial discrimination in the New England politics: Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig. Seemingly incongruent and irrelevant, reading “Black Veil” by means of Our Nig enables us to grasp the vigorously multicolored realities of New England that Hawthorne knew and pondered upon while his critics could not. The essay ultimately proposes reconsideration of the manner and purpose of positioning a writer within a canonical literary tradition.

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