Puritan Factors In American Culture

Simon During had said in The Introduction to Cultural Studies Reader:"Cultural study is not an academic discipline quite like others. It possesses neither a well defined methodology nor clearly demarcated fields for investigation."That's why it has been studied from different angles ranging from the social perspective by objectively describing its institutions and functions to traditional view by critically studying literature or specific texts. Domestic studies of American culture could not be separated from the influence of western academic trend. After a cultural studies boom of postmodernism and post-colonialism, cultural studies since 1990s began to bring the non-mainstream fields which had been ignored before into academic studies, such as, colonial discourses, minority discourses, and mass media. And the focal point of domestic studies of American culture is multiculturalism which concentrates on mass culture, marginal culture or subculture, advocating the interdisciplinary methodology of study.At the same time, study of American literature has become an increasingly important part of American cultural studies and a variety of literary discourses such as minority literature, feminism literature, have been paid great attention. This thesis aims to study American culture by putting it into the context of the masterpiece of American novels which is closely related to Puritanism, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, especially focusing on the influence of Puritan factors such as Puritan theology, Puritan idealism, Puritan ethics and utilitarianism, on American culture. Different from other studies of Puritanism which are conducted mainly from the perspective of religion, history or society, this thesis attempts to explain the impact of Puritanism on American culture from the angle of American novels. To some extent, American novels represent not only American literature but also American spirit. So it is no doubt that Puritanism, as a factor which has formed American spirit, is inevitably reflected more or less in these novels. Among them, The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is undoubtedly the most typical one.With his far-reaching sight , Hawthorne presented us with a wide range of issues about the influence of Puritan factors on American society and culture from his ancestors'seventeenth century to his age of nineteenth century and then to the modern world. A study of American culture by combining the Puritan factors with the writer's keen observation and vivid description is a meaningful attempt which complements the inadequacy and dullness of information from a single perspective of religion or history, and at the same time provides us with an opportunity to have a clear understanding of Puritan factors in American culture by analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing information from abundant sources in the novel. Since literary works focus more on the integrity of the plot, they cannot cover everything that one would like to know about American culture. Some important elements of Puritanism which are also reflected in American culture are not concerned in this thesis because they are not apparently presented in the novel.