Abstract

ABSTRACT Historical study of teachers and students reveals how rhetorical theories influence writers (McClish 2015). This case study of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s prose considers the nineteenth-century rhetorical teachings of Samuel Phillips Newman, Hawthorne’s professor at Bowdoin College, a student of Blair, and a proponent of rhetorical taste. Using Newman’s 1827 A Practical System of Rhetoric and Hawthorne’s 1832 travel sketches, we analyze Newman’s influences on Hawthorne—particularly taste and the sublime and how these concepts challenged Hawthorne as a writer in the travel sketch genre. We consider Newman’s influences on Hawthorne as evidenced by writing practices that Newman had recommended or disapproved. In particular, we examine Newman’s explanation of taste and its complementary construct of sublimity and how these concepts challenged Hawthorne. We argue that Hawthorne both wrote within the paradigm of rhetorical taste as Newman taught it and struggled against its constraints to find his own perceptions. Furthermore, we see this struggle happening within the context of Hawthorne’s exposure to Newman’s American-inflected belletrism that emphasized both a discriminatory principle of taste and the growing body of American literature.

Journal
Advances in the History of Rhetoric
Published
2016-09-01
DOI
10.1080/15362426.2016.1192518
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (39)

  1. Benjamin, Park. Introduction. “Sketches from Memory” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  2. Writing Instruction in 19th-Century American Colleges
  3. Hawthorne’s American Travel Sketches
  4. “History and Nationalism in “Old Ticonderoga” and Other Travel Sketches.”
  5. Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres
Show all 39 →
  1. The Philosophy of Rhetoric
  2. Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine…
  3. Oratorical Culture in Nineteenth-Century America: Transformations in the Theory and Pract…
  4. Hawthorne’s Country
  5. Selected Tales and Sketches: Nathaniel Hawthorne
  6. A Ride to Niagara in 1809. Rochester
  7. Oratorical Culture in Nineteenth-Century America: Transformations in the Theory and Pract…
  8. American Literature 9.4
  9. The Letters, 1813–1843
  10. Hawthorne’s American Travel Sketches
  11. Advances in the History of Rhetoric 8.1
  12. Scottish Rhetoric and Its Influences
  13. Advances in the History of Rhetoric 1.1
  14. The Niagara Book: A Complete Souvenir of Niagara Falls, Containing Sketches, Stories, and…
  15. Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary, by David Hume
  16. History, Tales and Sketches
  17. Hawthorne’s Reading, 1828–1850: A Transcription and Identification of Titles Recorded in …
  18. Longfellow’s Commencement Oration: Our Native Writers
    Every Other Saturday: A Journal of Select Reading, New and Old 1.8
  19. American Writers and the Picturesque Tour: The Search for National Identity, 1790–1860
  20. Hawthorne’s American Travel Sketches
  21. Advances in the History of Rhetoric 19.1
  22. Nineteenth-Century Literature48.3
  23. Practical System of Rhetoric, or the Principles & Rules of Style Inferred from Examples o…
  24. Practical System of Rhetoric, or the Principles & Rules of Style Inferred from Examples o…
  25. American Authors, 1600–1900: A Biographical Dictionary of American Literature
  26. Dictionary of American Biography
  27. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography
  28. Essays on the Rhetoric of the Western World
  29. Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Biography
  30. Nathaniel Hawthorne: An Introduction and Interpretation
  31. The Nathaniel Hawthorne Journal 1972
  32. Hawthorne’s American Travel Sketches
  33. Hawthorne’s American Travel Sketches
  34. Hawthorne: A Life