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Historicizing Race in Early American Studies: A Roundtable with Joanna Brooks, Philip Gould, and David Kazanjian: Introduction

Historicizing Race in Early American Studies: A Roundtable with Joanna Brooks, Philip Gould, and... Roundtable sandra m. gustafson University of Notre Dame HistoricizingRace in Early AmericanStudies A Roundtable with Joanna Brooks, Philip Gould, and David Kazanjian introduction InTheHouseoftheSevenGables (1851) Nathaniel Hawthorne of- fers his fullest examination of the hold that the past has on the present and future and relates it to the prospects of democracy in the United States. For Hawthorne in this novel, as for William Faulkner some 75 years later, ‘‘race’’ is a concept that organizes the dangers that endogamy poses to a thriving social order. ‘‘It was evident that the race had degenerated, like manya noble race besides,’’ hewrites, ‘‘in consequence of too strict a watch- fulness to keep it pure’’ (83). As Susan Castillo observes in her review essay elsewhere in this issue, race purityand race mixture are abiding concerns of American writers. That the ‘‘race’’ that Hawthorne refers to here is a family of heirloom chickens adds point to his critique of the meanings carried by the concept of race. The featherless bipeds who own this race of ‘‘feathered people’’ resemble them so closely that the peculiarly Orientalist turban suggestive of antiquated forms of hierarchy that Hepzibah Pyncheon wears becomes, in the eyes of her niece Phoebe http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Early American Literature University of North Carolina Press

Historicizing Race in Early American Studies: A Roundtable with Joanna Brooks, Philip Gould, and David Kazanjian: Introduction

Gustafson, Sandra M.
Early American Literature , Volume 41 (2) – Jun 28, 2006
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Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 The University of North Carolina Press.
ISSN
1534-147X

Abstract

Roundtable sandra m. gustafson University of Notre Dame HistoricizingRace in Early AmericanStudies A Roundtable with Joanna Brooks, Philip Gould, and David Kazanjian introduction InTheHouseoftheSevenGables (1851) Nathaniel Hawthorne of- fers his fullest examination of the hold that the past has on the present and future and relates it to the prospects of democracy in the United States. For Hawthorne in this novel, as for William Faulkner some 75 years later, ‘‘race’’ is a concept that organizes the dangers that endogamy poses to a thriving social order. ‘‘It was evident that the race had degenerated, like manya noble race besides,’’ hewrites, ‘‘in consequence of too strict a watch- fulness to keep it pure’’ (83). As Susan Castillo observes in her review essay elsewhere in this issue, race purityand race mixture are abiding concerns of American writers. That the ‘‘race’’ that Hawthorne refers to here is a family of heirloom chickens adds point to his critique of the meanings carried by the concept of race. The featherless bipeds who own this race of ‘‘feathered people’’ resemble them so closely that the peculiarly Orientalist turban suggestive of antiquated forms of hierarchy that Hepzibah Pyncheon wears becomes, in the eyes of her niece Phoebe

Journal

Early American Literature – University of North Carolina Press

Published: Jun 28, 2006

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