In the shadow of Hawthorne: The early career of Elizabeth Stoddard (Nathaniel Hawthorne)

This dissertation examines the early career of Elizabeth Stoddard, specifically her 1854--1858 journalistic correspondence to the Daily Alta California and her first novel The Morgesons (1862), in relation to her reading of the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Distinguishing herself through experimental narration from the sentimental domestic fiction and journalism of nineteenth-century women writers such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Fanny Fern, Stoddard responds to the romance tradition of Hawthorne by crafting an original and powerful narrative voice and a new vision for American selfhood. Laying the case for Stoddard's inclusion in the American canon, this study begins with her literary reception by nineteenth-century contemporaries and modern critics then moves to an examination of her work in light of the American romance tradition and the presence of Hawthorne. Stoddard's 1850s Daily Alta correspondence provides a venue for Stoddard to experiment with the narratives of Hawthorne while developing her narrative voice. The medium of bicoastal journalism proves to be a critical contribution to her literary imagination through the exploration of urban landscape and questioning of American selfhood. Looking next to Stoddard as a reader of Hawthorne, this study explores the psychological reality that Stoddard builds within the socioeconomic climate of mid-century and the setting of declining New England townships. Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, and The Blithedale Romance serve as bases for comparison as Stoddard wrestles with the legacy of Puritan decay and the growing influence of social materialism mid-century. Central to both Stoddard's journalism and her reading of Hawthorne is her attention to narrative voice. In The Morgesons, Stoddard's first-person narration and enigmatic narrative style exemplify both the independence as well as the isolation of the individual soul. Highlighting "possession" as a concept in the text, this study clarifies the role of passion in a world whose Puritan underpinnings are assaulted by social materialism, agnosticism and Transcendental idealism. Stoddard emerges from the shadow of Hawthorne in her narrative to present an original vision of selfhood in which individuals must repeatedly engage in personal reconciliation with the chaos of reality.