Hawthorne and Antebellum Theories on Hereditary Insanity

Authors

  • Maria Kaspirek FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, American Studies

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5283/copas.254

Keywords:

Insanity, 19th Century, Domesticity, Heredity, Hawthorne

Abstract

Twentieth-century concepts of degenerative hereditary insanity and Social Darwinism can be viewed as preconfigured by the less fatalistic stance of antebellum medical and social thought. Taking the latter into account, the following article will analyze Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novels The Scarlet Letter“ and The House of the Seven Gables “in order to explore nineteenth-century theories on heredity and acquired character. These literary works do not simply represent antebellum concepts of madness, but actively contribute to or critique contemporary notions on insanity and therefore shape the early psychiatric landscape in their own right. 

Author Biography

Maria Kaspirek, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, American Studies

Maria Kaspirek (Erlangen) is a PhD candidate within the graduate program "Presence and Tacit Knowledge" at the Friedrich Alexander-University Nuremberg-Erlangen. She holds an MLitt in English Literary Studies from the University of Aberdeen and received both her B.A. in Book Studies and her B.A. in Comparative Literature from the Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz. Her dissertation project "(In-)Sanitary Science. The Discourse of Mental Hygiene as Tacit Knowledge in Nineteenth-Century Literature" aims to explore the intersections of medical and literary tacit and explicit knowledge on insanity.

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Published

2016-05-12

How to Cite

Kaspirek, Maria. “Hawthorne and Antebellum Theories on Hereditary Insanity”. Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies, vol. 17, no. 1, May 2016, doi:10.5283/copas.254.

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 1 (2016)

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.