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Cultural and Narrative Shifts of Nineteenth Century Children's Literature in Hawthorne's Wonder Book for Girls and Boys

Both folklorists and literary critics have been drawn to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s body of work because of his distinctive style and incorporation of folk motifs. Such motif-spotting presents no challenge in Hawthorne’s juvenile literature like his retellings from Greek mythology in Wonder Book for Girls and Boys; however, contemporary folklore redirects the focus of this scholarship to “how particular literary uses of folklore fit into a larger, more fundamental concept of what folklore is and how and what folklore communicates” (de Caro & Jordan 2015:15). Hawthorne’s work interacts with other forms of cultural expression in the nineteenth century such as dominant cultural narratives and artwork to transform the classical narratives in Wonder Book for Girls and Boys into narratives that reflect customs in conversational discourse and childrearing practice.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:WKU/oai:digitalcommons.wku.edu:theses-4087
Date01 October 2018
CreatorsBrandt, Kristen Clark
PublisherTopSCHOLAR®
Source SetsWestern Kentucky University Theses
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceMasters Theses & Specialist Projects

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